00:00You know, I had three days off between Ransom Canyon and The Long Walk, and I read the book three times, and I got into the headspace.
00:07I knew how intense this was going to be, and I remember finishing—I remember, like, standing there on set with Ben Wong, who played Olsen in the movie,
00:18and standing on set, and it was 100-degree heat in Manitoba, and we're all in costume in our boots, and we're walking back and forth.
00:23We walked 12 miles that day, and I remember him looking to me, and he said,
00:26What did we just get ourselves into? And I remember thinking the same exact thing, but look, to prepare for this, it's for me finding that character, finding the voice, finding the walk.
00:38You know, what is it like for your body to walk after 300 miles? What does it look like to build that gradually?
00:43What is it like day one, day two, day three? And of course, Stebbins gets sick throughout the film, so what is it like to play this physicality of being sick?
00:52And believe it or not, I had an upper respiratory infection when I taped for this initially, and so all of my snot and stuff in the audition, that was all real.
01:02And in fact, I think it might have been a blessing because I think it made it more convincing.
01:06I mean, yeah, our shoes ended up being—I mean, our saving grace.
01:15I never thought that I would become best friends with asphalt, but I will tell you, the asphalt of Manitoba became my best friend because that was my salvation at the end of these takes.
01:24You just sit down on the ground, and you just lay there.
01:26We were—I mean, by the end of each week, we had walked 50 miles, and this just compounds on itself, and you're acting all the while while doing this.
01:36There was one day when my dear buddy Damon, who played Rankin in the film, I was like, hey, guys, I think there's something in my shoe.
01:45And he pulls off his Converse, and his socks are filled with blood.
01:50So, like, what you see on screen is real.
01:53I mean, we were getting sunburned.
01:54They told us at the beginning, rain, snow, shine, cold, we're shooting.
01:58And whatever the conditions are, we'll be doing it overnight, whatever it might be.
02:02And we were just—we were in it together, and while you see this camaraderie play out on the screen with the boys, behind the scenes, that was all prevalent as well.
02:11I mean, these were my brothers.
02:13We were all trauma-bonded by this experience, and it means so much to me to get to share this with them and to see the response be so positive for all the hard work that we put in and went through together.
02:24We would go get Dairy Queen on Fridays, and we would go get Blizzards at the end of the day, which was really sweet.
02:29But in a way, when these boys would get their death day, is what we called it, we would all get—you know, the ADs would give us a button that said, you know, it's my death day, and we would get balloons, and everybody, like, knew that it was that day.
02:43And it was both a celebration and also, like, a grievance at times.
02:46Like, it made me sad.
02:48And in some ways, it made me jealous because I knew that these boys would get to stop walking, and these boys would get to go home.
02:56And I think that's probably partially the character speaking in my brain as well, being, like, you know, jealous of these boys that get to end this walk and take a nap and sleep in, you know.
03:06Some of our call times were, like, 3 in the morning, and we would just start walking and keep going.
03:11And it was a celebration every day on that set for all the hard work that we all put in, yeah.
03:18I got the call that I booked The Long Walk my final day on Ransom Canyon Season 1.
03:23And so I was driving to Waffle House to meet my castmates for a final farewell dinner.
03:29We just, you know, a job well done on this season.
03:32And I, on the car ride over to that Waffle House, I got a call from my agent saying that they wanted me for Stebbins and The Long Walk.
03:37And I got to arrive to that Waffle House with the greatest news, what felt like, of my career and share that with the friends who I actually taped with for this audition.
03:46My cast from Ransom Canyon went out to the desert with me, and we all shot this tape together.
03:50And it was a team effort from the beginning, and even now, it's a team effort making this film.
03:55And it was truly, like, a dream come true.
03:59I did a Zoom with Francis.
04:02I had read the book before I got on this Zoom, and it was, you know, my big farewell scene, basically, that I was having to do and do that monologue.
04:09And I auditioned for Barkovich initially, and Charlie Plummer did an incredible job bringing him to life.
04:17And the casting director, Rich D'Elia, was like, hey, who in this movie do you respond to?
04:23And I said Stebbins.
04:24And so I got an audition for Stebbins, and it felt like a match made in Stephen King heaven.
04:30And the fact that I get to bring this character to life, this beloved character, is truly a wild dream come true.
04:39And so I got to bring this character.
04:39And so I got to bring this character to O.
04:40And so I completely...
04:42And this is one that meets the opportunity for the wall to take Tom in the middle of the door.
04:46And there's a huge center in a budget to take a moment that I've only read it through therefore, but the
04:53place to look for you as an officer is not made in case of my ma and a lesson.
04:55And really, like, if you know, it's certainly not makers that don't realize.
04:58And let's just see what I got going to show.
04:59And then, of course, I won't end this for the part of my statue.
05:02And so I was watching this game again to stay a little bit Warriorез versus that.
05:04I want to be more of a group for some of my true list of the books and image that I have been trying to show your
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