Dylan O'Brien 'raised concerns' before horrific “Maze Runner” accident: 'I was trying to protect myself that day'

Dylan O'Brien 'raised concerns' before horrific “Maze Runner” accident: 'I was trying to protect myself that day'

The actor is finally opening up about his injury on the set of 2018's "Maze Runner: The Death Cure."

Dylan O'Brien is getting vulnerable about an accident that left him injured while shooting Maze Runner: The Death Cure in 2016.

"It was a life-changing incident," he recently told Men's Health. "I’ve approached everything differently, you could say, particularly with regards to standing my ground on set. It’s very commonplace in the culture for young actors to be controlled, and the way they strive to do that is by always being like, 'Oh, don’t become difficult. Don’t be a pain in the a--.' Or, 'Are you complaining, are you being difficult?'"

O'Brien continued to share, "It’s taught me that, at the end of the day, in these spaces, you have your own back, and that’s the most you can rely on. I just turned 33. I’ve been doing this for 15 years. I know the person I am, and the character I bring to set, and the way I treat people and the way that I treat a workspace, and I know I’m not difficult. I know I’m not an a------. I know I was trying to protect myself that day, and so I’ve just never forgotten that."

<p>Everett</p> Dylan O'Brien in 'The Maze Runner'

Everett

Dylan O'Brien in 'The Maze Runner'

The news that O'Brien was injured while filming The Death Cure broke in March 2016. Details of the accident were unclear at first, with 20th Century Fox noting in an official statement the actor had been "immediately transferred to a local hospital for observation and treatment," screenwriter James Dashner noting that "Dylan was hurt, but that he’s going to be okay," and a representative of WorkSafe BC, an agency which investigates workplace accidents in British Columbia, telling Entertainment Weekly they had become aware of an actor being struck by a car while filming.

Details only emerged later that O'Brien had reportedly been pulled from a vehicle while filming a stunt only to be struck by another. He was left with a facial fracture, concussion, and brain trauma.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

O'Brien told PEOPLE in 2017 that the accident had led him to question his future in the industry: "The first time I saw my face I was like, 'That's it'... even spending that six months out of it and in recovery and so far away from it, you’re in a state of questioning everything. I absolutely went through a period of not knowing what my future was going to be."

Related: Meet the SNL biopic cast: See Saturday Night stars next to real Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, George Carlin, more

O'Brien's breakout role as the goofball sidekick Stiles Stilinski on MTV's Teen Wolf came in 2011, three years before the first Maze Runner film. By the time The Death Cure, the third entry in the franchise came around, O'Brien had transcended from TV heartthrob to all-around leading man. But the workplace accident taught him not to take his safety for granted, and not to "conflate taking care of yourself and looking after yourself."

"Don’t let them manipulate you into thinking that is being difficult," he continued to Men's Health, "because I can look at that day and know I was a 24-year-old kid who was raising concerns about how we were approaching things, and they were not listened to, they were not respected. And then what happened happened. And by all accounts, it was all pretty gotten away with, I would say."

O'Brien reckons that "it’s a shame that it had to be that for me," meaning, a shame he had to learn such a valuable lesson about self-advocacy in such a brutal way. But he now advocates the fact that "There’s nothing wrong with asking questions. There’s nothing wrong with bringing ideas, even if we’re talking creatively. It’s our job to bring ideas. There’s nothing wrong with raising concerns. There’s nothing wrong with being like, 'I think we could do this better, I think we could do this differently.'"

<p>Sony</p> Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd in 'Saturday Night'

Sony

Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd in 'Saturday Night'

Related: Why Sadie Sink was shocked that Dylan O'Brien kitchen fight scene made Taylor Swift's 'All Too Well' video

Maze Runner: The Death Cure was postponed from its slated 2017 release date to 2018. O'Brien only appeared in a single episode of the YouTube Premium series Weird City in the two years following the final Maze Runner film. He's since returned to acting full speed, with starring roles in three films this year alone.

There's River Gallo's queer thriller Ponyboi, the M. Night Shyamalan-produced mystery Caddo Lake, and Saturday Night, Jason Reitman's Saturday Night Live origin story that EW called "an adrenaline-fueled nostalgia trip with pitch-perfect casting." O'Brien is already receiving praise for his performance as the legendary comic Dan Aykroyd, and costars alongside Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Gabrielle LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, and Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, among others.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.