Will Poulter Rivals Greenie In “THE MAZE RUNNER”
Will Poulter, best known for his role as Eustace
Scrub in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader” and has
recently played comic scene-stealing moments in “We’re The Millers” stars alongside
an atypical group of teens trapped in a virtual prison in “The Maze Runner.”
Based
on the (first book) young adult series by James Dashner of the same title, “The
Maze Runner” director Wes Ball casts Poulter as Gally, one of the captured
Glader group who takes an instant dislike to newcomer Thomas played by Dylan
O’Brien. Thomas wakes up in a lift,
moving slowly upward. As the box grinds to a halt and the doors open, he s
finds himself among a colony of boys who welcome him to the Glade – a large
open expanse surrounded by enormous concrete walls. Thomas’ mind is blank. He
has no knowledge of where he is, doesn’t know where he came from, and he can’t
remember his parents, his past, or even his own name.
Thomas’s nemesis in the Glade is
Gally. Smart and intimidating, Gally
wants to maintain the status quo and clashes with the new arrival. “But Gally and Thomas are really two sides of
the same coin,” notes Ball. “Thomas
fully embraces and charges into the unknown and Gally is all about self-preservation
and keeping things safe and normal.”
Will Poulter, who starred in the cult film “Son of
Rambow,” and recently showed his comic skill in “We’re the Millers,” portrays
Gally. Godfrey says, “Will’s the perfect Gally because you don’t want to mess with
him, and he’s an intelligent adversary.”
Gally’s trust in and insistence on
the status quo is not without good reason, says Poulter. “He’s not so much the
law-keeper as he is a guy who has a lot of faith in the rules, because without
them, the Gladers will die,” he explains.
“So Gally is quick to speak up and challenge Thomas when those rules
aren’t respected. To him, those laws are
life itself.”
Novelist Dashner also rejects the
idea that Gally is a villain. “I wanted
to set him up as a major rival to Thomas, but I also wanted readers to
empathize with him and understand his beliefs and actions,” he says.
On auditioning for the part, Poulter
shared that “Well, actually I auditioned a scene for Gally without having read
the script or the books and so that was quite tricky. I went away and read the
books and the script and I loved them both. What I really loved about the
script – and it’s the biggest challenge when adapting into film – is that it
captured the spirit of the book without having every single detail in, because
that would be impossible. The camaraderie between the Gladers is really, really
key in this and the dynamic that exists between characters – how they negotiate
around the hierarchy they’ve built – I really liked as an actor. And then to
play someone I hadn’t played before – I wouldn’t call him a villain, but he’s
this conflicted character that goes between good and bad. It’s difficult to
know where Gally stands. I was on board from the moment I read the script,
because it was a great challenge and you don’t often associate such challenges
with a platform as big as this movie.”
“The Maze Runner” opens September 17
in cinemas from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
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