The Southerner had the opportunity to sit down with Kaya Scodelario and Will Poulter to discuss their roles in the upcoming science fiction film The Maze Runner.

There are a lot of Young Adult dystopian novels and films out right now. What do you think sets the Maze Runner apart?

Kaya: We’ve thought about that a lot and it’s strange that teen and young adult dystopian novels get compared to one another because we don’t really do that with any other genre. I think it’s partially because it’s a relatively new genre and we keep having to compare it and having to stand out. With Batman and Superman that doesn’t really happen, but I’m proud to be part of something like this. I think that it’s great that a new generation can come together and read and discuss these novels. And our movie, if you want to know what sets it apart is it’s about togetherness, it’s about brotherhood. It’s not about killing each other or pulling people apart. There’s no love story, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to do it. It’s purely an action film.

Will: Yeah, and another difference is that there’s a lead male instead of a lead female. A part of our movie is that humans are innately good and I think that the reaction of these characters to this very extreme environment to come together and work as one instead of being forced to be in a position where they have to compete with one another is great.

This is for Will. There’s this one scene at the end of the movie, where you’re very serious. You’ve got the gun, you’re about to cry. The last time I saw you serious is when you turned into a giant gold dragon at the end of Narnia. What’s it like coming from such comedic roles, like We’re the Millers and School of Comedy, to such a serious role?

Will: I was really lucky that Wes trusted me with such a serious role. Gally is such a complex character and I’ve said this before, but this is such a dramatically gifted task and I think the film shows that, but these guys are so funny as well. They crack me up and there is so much love. That was why, for me, it was kind of the ultimate experience. It was so fun. When we were on set it was very serious and very focused which was great and made for a very productive two months.

This is a question for Kaya. How did your previous training, since you played Effy in skins prepare you for this role?

Kaya: Well that was my first ever job and I never thought I’d get the chance to do what I love. I thought I would have to come from a connected family or be blonde and beautiful and perfect…

Will: She’s just brunette and beautiful.

Kaya: *laughs* Stop, I never felt like that. I was always shy, very self conscious and my mom is brazilian so I was the only one in school with a foreign parent and I always felt very, kind of, on my own. Skins was beautiful because they wanted real kids. They didn’t want trained actors who were 25 playing 14-year-olds. I got great training and stuff and it changed my life forever. Even if it had just been that I would have been happy, but after that I got more jobs. And I look at people I know my age and see how hard it is to get a job, even if you’ve gone to university. With this I can do things like take care of my mom. I want to keep doing it because I love it with every part of me. I don’t think I know what I would do otherwise. I have no idea.

Will: Me either.

Kaya: We’d be such a mess.

Since you were the only girl in a cast full of boys did you ever feel like a special connection to the role?

Kaya: You know, I never felt like the only girl. What I love so much about these boys and why we became so close is because they saw me as a human being. We connected on a human level straight away. I felt like I had a duty to do to prove that you can make a movie with boys and not have a love story. I wanted to do that for myself and to show the industry that we’re not just, you know, we’re not just there to be a romantic couple, that we can be interesting in other ways. But as far as actually being on set, we worked together very well, we wrestled and stuff

How much did you get to collaborate with the director? Was he open to your suggestions?

Will: He was massively welcoming. From a visual perspective we knew that that was his world and that he had that down. There was no doubt in our minds that he was going to make it look awesome. When we first had the chance to meet him and properly sit down and converse about our roles, we may have had some concerns about, but he said to us that we shouldn’t doubt any value we had to the role or and dynamics we had. He was very much about talking out everything with us and very welcome to when we had ideas of our own. Like this sounds lame, but the Glader handshake in the film, it’s kind of this forearm grab, that we just started doing and he brought it into the film. There are like four or five improvised moments in the film and that’s kind of the thing you only see in independents where you’re not dealing with these other bearings like special effects and a big budgets, but our film wasn’t like that at all it was far more grounded.

I actually didn’t realize that both of you guys are English, how hard was it for you guys to do an American accent?

Kaya: First of all, I think your accent is the most amazing thing ever…

Will: Yeah it’s awesome.

Kaya: That’s a great compliment, thank you so much. I did a film when I was 14 and I had like four lines and I played an American, and I never had any accent training. I could never like do accents like Will can, like Will can just do it, and it was so bad that I could never watch it. It was awful. That was good, because from then on I was like ‘I’m gonna work,’ so I really wanted to work on that. Then, I did an indie and a really good accent coach came in and showed us how to do it. It’s all about where you put your tongue. My mom’s Brazilian and I speak portuguese so my mouth is used to making different shapes, not just an english accent which makes it a bit easier. Will is just naturally gifted with any accent. He can do Dylan [O’Brien]. Do Dylan.

Will: No, it’s funny, the funny thing about being on set is we were roughly 50 percent american 50 percent english. And the American cast started taking on Englishisms and the english cast was taking on Americanisms. Like Dexter, like Dexter talks like this *takes on a flawless american accent* This is how Dex is, man, he’d talk to me like this and put on this english intonation and be like ‘Oh Will, do you want to go to the cinema?’ *changes back to an english accent* and I’d be like, you’re doing this weird half english, half american thing. He made this real habit of doing that and it’s quite funny. He still does it, and he doesn’t realize he’s doing that which is cute.

What was your biggest take away or something learned from working the film?

Kaya: I think for me, as cheesy as it sounds, the importance of making friends and working and having that down time. It’s so good to feel like a normal person at the end of the day when you’ve been someone else especially when you’re doing another accent and you’re in costume. Going home and just having a laugh with your mates is great. I can’t imagine if every night we had to go back to an empty hotel room and stare at the TV. It’s nice to have that down time.

What was the most fun, or even challenging scene to film and why?

Kaya: I liked the days when we were all on set together, which weren’t a lot unfortunately because my character sort of comes on as Will’s leaves. We didn’t get a lot of time on set, so when we got to shoot together it was very cool for me. And we did a weeks work of the stuff when we worked on the stuff with the greivers coming into the glade, and it was tough, it was exhausting. There were horseflies everywhere and we were running from one side of the glade to the other trying to imagine these things the whole time. I think by the end of that week we were all like ‘Oh my god, that was tough.’

Will: Do you remember that time when Wes was directing someone of the background characters and it was like one of the funniest things. He’s got like a megaphone and its on a wide and some of the background artists are running to this maze door. It’s really far away and he’s like, ‘O.K. you’re running to the door everything’s fine, holy shit I lied everyone run!’ and it was so funny, everyone was running. he was like ‘I’m a greiver!’ it was so funny, but I guess you kind of had to be there.

Nexus Magazine was also present for the interview and gave a glittering review of the film.

Atlanta’s hometown talent Jacob Latimore and Blake Cooper will be attending an opening night showing of their film, THE MAZE RUNNER exclusively at Regal Atlantic Station with a Q&A directly afterwards.  The Q&A will be moderated by V103 morning show personality Ryan Cameron.