For Rosa Salazar, joining a cast that bonded in the most extreme of set circumstances like The Maze Runner cast did on the first film, could be challenging. It could be like arriving in high school in the middle of senior year!
But for Salazar, who plays Brenda (someone who challenges Dylan O’Brien’s Thomas and could fill out a love triangle in the big screen adaptation of James Dashner’s blockbuster novel), she found the cast as welcoming as could be.
“With a big huge movie like that, you don’t expect to have it feel like such a home, like such a cozy fun environment, and that’s exactly what it was. By day you’re running from cranks and surviving the tumultuous elements, and by night you’re playing Mario Kart and everyone is in one room and we’re all eating Cheetos,” Salazar told The Movie Mensch.
Joining the series, even if melding into an already established ensemble in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials could have been difficult, was a no-brainer given the enormous success of the first film.
“[We] knew it was a hit, so we signed on,” she added and laughed. “It was awesome. It was so seamless.”
Star O’Brien knew that the stellar dynamic of the cast would continue, even with new additions, and also felt that it could only be enhanced by the new cast members. “With all of us, I don’t really think about it. We just have a great group. We have a great energy. We have a great story that we all love to tell, I just don’t even think there’s ever any lack of it,” O’Brien said.
“It comes from all directions. Everyone leads on this movie and that’s why we get it done the way we do, I guess. That’s why we’re all so proud of it at the end of the day.”
Although he professes to not being any kind of thespian leader with the cast and that it is the true definition of ensemble, his character Thomas is becoming even more of a leader on screen in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials — even if it is a struggle.
“He’s a struggling leader at this point in that he’s still trying to lead and he doesn’t want to show anyone what’s really going on with him,” O’Brien said.
“He’s full of doubt at this point, and regret almost, just questions of himself. Everything was on his shoulders and his mind. This was all on his shoulders. He made that choice and now the fact that he could’ve led them wrong, it kills him. He still has to lead. He still has to be strong and that’s just the difficult conflict inside of him.”
When asked if she had a favorite scene, Salazar did not hesitate. “I like the tunnels because they are lit by two flashlights. They are so beautiful. The set dec hand painted them to look like they had been graffitied over years and years,” she said.
“All these messages like, ‘I’m dying here,’ or ‘poop bitch.’ They ranged from that to these amazing little drawings. I had a lot of fun during our breaks walking through, looking at them.”
O’Brien also had the joy of re-teaming with The Maze Runner director Wes Ball on the sequel, and reported that it was a joy seeing him continue on his fateful path.
“[He] didn’t change a bit, from his personality to the way he talks to us. He wears the same sweaty hat. That completely exemplifies him,” O’Brien said and laughed.
“He’s just a regular dude who really understands and loves storytelling and films.”