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Dylan O'Brien Opens Up About The Anger He Felt After The Accident That Nearly Ended His Career

'There was so much doubt and so much fear,' the actor tells MTV News

Dylan O'Brien is back in the spotlight following the serious accident that nearly ended his career — and could have ended his life. The accident occurred on the set of The Maze Runner: The Death Cure back in March 2016 and reportedly was the result of a stunt gone wrong. O'Brien prefers to keep the details of the accident private, but it's been reported that he suffered a concussion, facial fracture, and brain trauma.

"I was in a really tough place," O'Brien, 26, told MTV News correspondent Josh Horowitz while promoting his new film American Assassin in New York City.

At the time of the Maze Runner accident, O'Brien, a burgeoning Hollywood star, was in talks to star in spy thriller American Assassin, director Michael Cuesta's big screen adaptation of the Vince Flynn bestselling novel series of the same name. Instead of finding a new actor to portray their leading man Mitch Rapp, producers waited until O'Brien was ready and able to commence production on American Assassin.

"I have to give them a lot of credit because they stuck with me, man," he said. "They didn't jump ship and go look for another actor. They pushed the movie and wanted to stick with me."

But whether or not O'Brien wanted to stick with American Assassin following the accident was another story. The Teen Wolf star had not only suffered extensive physical injuries from the accident, but there was also a lot of psychological trauma to deal with as well. O'Brien didn't even know if he could ever feel safe on a movie set again, let alone act on one.

"I was struggling with a lot stuff," he said. "I was not confident in my ability to just leap back onto a set. It took a lot of work. Even up to the last minute, there was so much doubt and so much fear. Genuinely. Ultimately, I thought it would be best to push through all that. My thinking was that it would help me, [and] it really did."

It turns out that getting back to work was exactly what O'Brien needed to feel like himself again. However, that doesn't mean he's the same person he was 18 months ago.

"I've learned a lot from the past year of my life. In a lot of weird ways, it made me grow," O'Brien said. "I was really angry for a long time. At this point I'm really at peace with it and really happy that I'm OK."

American Assassin hits theaters September 15.

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