Hypable sat down with actors Will Poulter and Kaya Scodelario, who play Gally and Teresa in The Maze Runner, to get the scoop on the silver screen adaption.
James Dashner’s sci-fi novel tells the story of a boy named Thomas who finds himself mysteriously deposited into a remote community of boys with no recollection of who he is. Thomas’ only hope of escaping is figuring out how to get through the mysterious and deadly maze that keeps him and the rest of the boys enclosed in the glade he now calls home.
With a film adaption of the book set to hit theaters in just a few months, Hypable caught with with British actors Will Poulter (We’re The Millers) and Kaya Scodelario (Skins) during their first trip to San Diego Comic-Con to get the scoop on their character’s motives, author James Dashner’s involvement in the production, working with the terrifying grievers, and more.
Will Poulter, who plays Gally in the upcoming film, describes his character as “the antitheses” to main character Thomas (Teen Wolf‘s Dylan O’Brien).
“Thomas is someone who’s looking to escape The Maze — he doesn’t feel safe, and wants to kind of lead in this democratic kind of style, and I think for me, you know, as Gally, I have 100 percent faith in the area that we’ve worked to build up,” Poulter told Hypable of his character in the film. “I believe in our hierarchy, I have no desire to escape and I don’t believe there’s a world out there we can survive in or that’s better than the world we’ve created. So we kind of go head to head.”
Actress Kaya Scodelario, however, says there’s much more mystery surrounding her character Teresa Agnes, who becomes the first girl show up in the glade, shortly after Thomas’ arrival.
“When I come up for the first time, Thomas and I recognize something in each other — maybe it’s like a defiance, it’s a hunger to want to know who we are and why we’re there — to fight the system in some ways, and that’s why we kind of feel this connection toward each other that no one else can quite understand,” said Scodelario of Teresa. “We know we have a past, but also, I think it’s very much about the moment and in that moment, we both just want to get the hell out of there.”
For their part, neither Scodelario or Poulter read James Dashner’s novel before coming in to audition, but while Scodelario chose to read the book after she had finished filming so she could put her own spin on Teresa, Poulter says he picked the book up after falling in love with the script.
“I loved the script so I was so excited to read the book and it’s so comforting to see how well the script represents the book for the readership of The Maze Runner,” said the actor. “It’s gonna be awesome for them to have so much that they recognize from the book and to sort of have the best loved features of the book celebrated in the film. James Dashner has been such a big supporter of the movie and absolutely loves it — he thinks the movie is even better than the book, which is incredible for him to say.”
As with many novelists who have had their books adapted for the silver screen, Scodelario says Dashner was very much a presence during production of The Maze Runner.
“I think he really trusted Wes [Ball] which says a lot about what a great director Wes is,” Scodelario told Hypable. “[James Dashner] knew that his vision was being looked after and he understands as well that there’s certain things that you can’t translate to film or maybe have to adjust lightly. He’s just been a really amazing supporter of that and just loves it — he tweeted just a few days ago that he’d seen the final product and that he cried!”
One of the things the film was able to touch on a bit more were the backstories to certain characters. Poulter specifically says they filmed a few flashback scenes for his character, Gally.
“I think the last thing I did on the film was a flashback scene where I’m in a water tank, which is funny because I tweeted about it and the reaction was, ‘Why is there a water tank? There weren’t water tanks in the book!’ but I promise you, it’s a cool scene and it was very fun to shoot!” teased Poulter. “And Wes, I think, what he’s done in collaboration with James and the rest of the writing team, is they’ve managed to expand on the best features. They’ve taken the best features of the book, made sure they’re all there, and they’ve built upon them and developed the depth of them. The flashbacks, and the world that existed before we meet Thomas in The Glade is all there in a brilliantly conceptualized way.”
One aspect of the book, however, that they tried to make sure lived up to fan’s expectations were that of the Grievers — the horrendous monsters that live within the maze itself.
“They are more scary than I ever could have imagined them to be!” said Poulter of the deadly monsters, which are described as being bulbous with many appendages that take the shape of spikes, shears and rods.
“They’re disgusting!” exclaimed Scodelario of the creatures.
“They’re disgusting, they’re deadly, and it’s kind of like, you know, when you have a creepy crawly that you’re genuinely scared of,” explained Poulter. “It’s so often their movement — the movement of the grievers is terrifying — it’s kind of like this really fast, intense scuttle. It’s horrible!”
The Maze Runner hits theaters on September 19, 2014.