SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The Long Walk, specifically for Garrett Wareing‘s character Stebbins.
The Long Walk star Garrett Wareing shot his audition tape for the Francis Lawrence-directed adaptation of Stephen King’s dystopian horror novel on set for the first season of Netflix’s Ransom Canyon.
The story follows 50 young men who get selected to participate in a grueling competition that rewards the last man standing after over 300 miles of walking at a pace of 3.1 miles per hour or above. Those who fall below that speed “get their ticket,” which is a fatal gunshot, to eliminate them from the competition. After submitting the tape, which his Ransom Canyon costars Lizzy Greene, Andrew Liner and Niko Guardado helped him capture while he walked through the desert, Wareing rushed to read the book ahead of a chat with Lawrence.
“I ended up getting a call back with Francis, and I was like, ‘Well, I gotta be able to talk the talk if I’m gonna meet with the director of The Hunger Games.’ So I read the book in three days, super quickly, in between takes on set for Ransom,” the actor told Deadline. “It just blew me away. It’s a fantastic read. It’s visceral, it’s gut-wrenching and it’s heartfelt, just like the movie. It has something to say about camaraderie and companionship, and keeping your promises and staying true to those that you call your brothers.”
Starring as Stebbins, who gets nicknamed a “fitness nut” by Ben Wang’s Hank Olson before the walk commences, Wareing initially auditioned for Gary Barkovitch, a role that later went to his costar Charlie Plummer, but Stebbins “caught [his] eye from the beginning.” Though both agitators of sorts, Stebbins puts up a different front and keeps more to himself when he’s not spouting off facts about previous Long Walks.
In the below interview, Wareing unpacks how he got into character, Stebbins’ “emotional gut punch” of a backstory, the physical demand of his role in The Long Walk and more.
DEADLINE: Stebbins has another pair of shoes with to him on the walk. What does this say about his character?
WAREING: Well, in the book, Stebbins — and let me give a shout out to the book fans right here because I petitioned for the purple pants. Stebbins is known for his purple pants, and I brought up to [director] Francis [Lawrence], I was like, “Where are these purple pants?” And he said, “You know, it wasn’t quite of the time, and we were afraid it was going to stick out.”
But believe me, book fans, I tried for it, I wanted to honor the character. With the purple pants from the book, Stebbins wore these moccasins. And when [Cooper Hoffman’s character Ray] Garraty loses his shoes towards the end of the film, he looks at my soft-looking moccasins, and wants to wear those. Stebbins is a very prepared kind of guy. He knows everything about The Long Walk, and he knows that he might lose his shoes, like Garraty does towards the end of the film. So he brought an extra backup pair, just to have, and an eagle-eyed fan was talking to me, and they were like, “I thought Stebbins was going to volunteer his shoes to Garrity at the end.” I was like, “Oh, that would have been smart.”
DEADLINE: Even knowing what happens with Stebbins, I don’t know if that’s very him to do? It would make more sense at the end.
DEADLINE: Right? I completely agree with you. He has this change of heart. He goes into the walk with his walls up and his guard up. Slowly throughout the course of the movie, you see that those walls begin to break down, specifically for the first time when the guy holds up the radio and everybody’s shouting, “F*ck the long walk, f*ck The Major,’” and we see Stebbins crack a smile for the first time. From that moment forward, the tough exterior begins to falter.
DEADLINE: In that moment you mentioned with the dissent, is Stebbins conflicted, knowing what we know about who his dad is?
WAREING: Absolutely, I think for him to show any sense of contradiction to supporting The Long Walk would jeopardize his position with his father. His dream, his goal, is to meet his father and for [his father] to be this hero that he idolized his whole life. I think that he goes into the walk thinking that this is a necessary thing, this is a good thing. And throughout the course, he begins to see the brutality that exists along something like this. And maybe he begins to see it for what it is, not necessarily [as] what it’s pitched to [be to] these young boys in the nation.
DEADLINE: Reading the book and script, is it his identity and who his dad is that drew you to him? How did that factor in once you realized that aspect?
WAREING: The big twist was something that caught me off guard. I did not see that coming. I thought it was brilliant, and Stebbins gets second place in the book. He just collapses. JT Mollner did an amazing job adapting the screenplay, making it even more emotional in the film.
We look for challenges as actors, we look for characters that are far from us — at least I do — that push us. Stebbins was someone who was very far from the golden retriever lover boy that I consider myself to be. And what a joy to be able to act that.
DEADLINE Stebbins finishes third in the film.
WAREING: I got bronze, baby.
DEADLINE: How did that change things for you? And what did you want to get across in that final scene? He’s just revealed that The Major is his dad. How did you want to go out in that moment?
WAREING: Francis and I really sculpted that. JT wrote an amazing monologue there about the rabbit and coming clean with what [Stebbins’] wish would be. It would be to have tea with my father, to be invited into his home for tea. I think Francis wanted to make this as simple and as stripped down and vulnerable as possible, because you’re seeing a man at the end of his life, and you’re seeing a man at the end of his rope. This is all that he longed for, and to release that, I think, is a very emotional and human thing.
We did a few takes, and some of them were more angry, some of them were quite emotional. And I think he ended up using the last take. He came over. He was like, ‘Take it all away. What is it like to just say the words and let it be? Take your time with it, and just let it sit.’ I think we found a space together that was quite an emotional gut punch. I’m very proud of that monologue. Francis did an amazing job sculpting that out of me.
It was a very emotional day. I had walked 260 miles by that point. I’d seen so many boys, who I consider dear friends, fall before me, and it was my final day on set, because we shot chronologically. The final time they called cut, I knew that it was the end. I just broke down in tears and allowed this hard thing to have been completed. It [was] a celebration and also a relief.
DEADLINE: The Major tells Stebbins ‘Good Luck’ at the very beginning of The Long Walk so it seems like he knows that Stebbins is his son? But they’ve never interacted before this? How did you build out that relationship for your character?
WAREING: Oddly enough, Mark was saying “Good luck, son” randomly to a different boy each take, and I figured, how fitting it would have been if he said it to my character instead, alluding to the fact that maybe he knows of our relationship. When I first watched the film, I noticed they used his line and paired it with my reaction which wasn’t the case on the day but ended up working very well in the edit! I wanted to build out Stebbins seeing his role model and idol, but above that, his father, in person for the first time. And there’s a sense of awe, but also a sense of fear that I built into the moment I received my dog tag for the walk.
DEADLINE: Did you have a conversation with Mark Hamill about the dynamic between Stebbins and The Major and what you wanted it to look like?
WAREING: One of the first times I interacted with Mark in the makeup trailer, he made the brilliant connection to Star Wars by saying, “you know, here on page 96 (or whatever page it was), there’s a bit of an “I am your father” moment when your character reveals that The Major is his father.” And we both laughed. It was quite fitting that Luke had now become the father and in turn, I had now become Luke speaking to Vader.
Mark is such a gentle spirit and a very kind man. Always happy to share a story or advice. He was a joy to work with and get to know. Though I did grow quite jealous of him towards the second half of our shoot because he got to sit in that damn Jeep while the rest of us had to walk take after take! All I wanted was to be sitting in that Jeep with him [to] give my feet a break, but to be honest, I bet you it only made our performances more believable.
DEADLINE: Do you still feel all that walking from filming, or are you recovered now?
WAREING: The first few weeks, it was like, “I don’t know how I’ll ever get this completed.” I remember being on set with Ben Wang the first day we were shooting, and it was like 100 degrees in Manitoba. We were all there. We were walking. And I remember looking to him after our first take, and he was like, “What did we just get ourselves into?”
After the blisters began to harden and our calluses began to form, I honestly felt like I could walk forever. Somebody says that in the film, “I feel like I could go forever.” Believe me, by like, Friday, we were just dead, and I’m a work hard, recover harder, kind of guy. So I would go to the spa and sit in a hot tub. That was my kind of recovery. But by the end of it, I felt pretty strong.
DEADLINE: Stephen King has said, “This was before The Hunger Games” that his book came out. What do you think The Long Walk adds to the conversation with other dystopian films?
WAREING: I mean, what an honor to be considered amongst the ranks of Divergent and Hunger Games. Also Maze Runner’s been coming to mind a lot for me recently. I loved that growing up. This predates all of those. It predates Battle Royale, it predates Hunger Games, it predates Divergent and the fact that those films paved the way for our film to now come through and have this story be told is an honor.
Hunger Games is what got me into acting. I wanted to be in The Hunger Games, and to work with Francis made 12 year-old Garrett’s dreams absolutely come true. I could not believe that I got to meet the man who made these possible, and in a weird way, I feel like I got my moment in the sun in The Hunger Games-style universe, this dystopian universe, within The Long Walk. I loved Stebbins. I love our story. It’s heartfelt, and I think as far as dystopian futures are concerned, I feel like, in a weird way, this film is hopeful. The positive reactions that people have been giving it has made all the hard work worth it.
RELATED: Stephen King Demanded ‘The Long Walk’ Show Teens Getting Shot: “A Pretty Brutal Movie”
The post ‘The Long Walk’ Star Garrett Wareing Unpacks “Big Twist” For His Character And “Hopeful” Elements Of Stephen King Adaptation appeared first on Deadline.
