Garrett Wareing Explains Brutal Filming for The Long Walk

Garrett Wareing and his costars had to face brutal conditions while filming their new dystopian thriller, The Long Walk — but it was an experience he wouldn’t change for the world.

“Our shoes ended up being our saving grace. I never thought that I would become best friends with asphalt, but I will tell you, the asphalt of Manitoba, [Canada] became my best friend because that was my salvation,” Wareing, 24, exclusively told Us Weekly about facing the elements while filming. “At the end of these takes, you just sit down on the ground and you just lay there. By the end of each week, we had walked 50 miles and this just compounds itself, and you’re acting all the while.”

Warning: Spoilers below for The Long Walk. 

Wareing, who portrays Stebbins in the adaptation of Stephen King’s 1979 novel, recalled one particular instance where costar Daymon Wrightly (who plays Rank), took off his Converse sneakers only to find his socks were “filled with blood” from walking blisters.

“So what you see on screen is real,” he continued. “I mean, we were getting sunburned. They told us at the beginning, rain, snow, shine, cold, we’re shooting and whatever the conditions are, we’ll be doing it. Overnight, whatever it might be.”

Directed by The Hunger Games’ Francis Lawrence, The Long Walk follows a group of teen boys who volunteer to participate in a grueling high-stakes contest where they must continuously walk or be shot by a member of their military escort. The contest continues until only one boy is left standing. While the basis of the context should spark rivalry between the boys, they find a sense of deep brotherhood as they battle the grueling experience that tests their limits.

According to Wareing, those unbreakable bonds weren’t much different from the actors’ dynamics off screen.

“We were just in it together,” he told Us. “While you see this camaraderie play out on the screen with the boys, behind the scenes, that was all prevalent as well. I mean, these were my brothers. We 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.”

Wareing explained that the actors sometimes would walk an average of “12 miles” in one day, even in the “100-degree” Canada heat in their costumes and boots.

“I remember standing on set with Ben Wong, who played Olson in the movie. … I remember him looking at me, and he said, ‘What did we just get ourselves into?’ And I remember thinking the same exact thing,” Wareing said with a laugh.

But despite the physical exertion of the role, preparation for playing Stebbins was much more about the mental. “It’s about finding that character, finding the voice, finding the walk,” Wareing said. “What is it like for your body to walk after 300 miles? What does it look like to build that gradually? What is it like day one, day two, day three?”

Wareing’s character specifically has a lot to work through. He is hiding a secret connection to the Major (Mark Hamill) and faces an illness midway through the walk. Luckily for Wareing, fate was on his side during the audition process.

“Stebbins gets sick throughout the film. So [I had to think], ‘What is it like to play this physicality of being sick?’ And 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,” he revealed. “I think it might have been a blessing, because I think it made it more convincing!”

Stebbins may not be at his best health, but he still is one of the final boys on the walk, which meant Wareing was filming a lot longer than some of his costars. The actor said that the cast would take time to honor each boy after they filmed their final scene with Dairy Queen and balloons — a tradition that ultimately left Wareing conflicted.

“It was both a celebration and also a grievance at times. It made me sad, and 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,” he said. “And I think that’s probably partially the character speaking in my brain, as well being jealous of these boys that get to end this walk and take a nap and sleep in. Some of our call times were, like, three in the morning, and we would just start walking and keep going. It was a celebration every day on that set for all the hard work that we all put in.”

One thing Wareing reveled in was the process of finding a new version of Stebbins that felt different from the novel. The book sees the characters as a more “antagonistic” presence, but Wareing and Lawrence ultimately wanted to find a more empathetic middle ground.

“Francis was like, ‘I don’t know if that necessarily belongs within this character. I think Stebbins comes from a place of care, as opposed to antagonistic energy,’” Wareing recalled. “And I think it’s because Stebbins knows that he’s going to win this walk. In his head, he will be the winner. There’s nothing that will stop him from winning this.”

Wareing noted that Stebbins’ walls ultimately come from a place of wanting to “preserve himself and his emotions” so he won’t get hurt by the inevitability he will lose his friends.

“In order to win this, all of them must die,” he explained. “But then toward the end of the film, we start to see that tough exterior of Stebbins begin to crack and falter as he begins to seek companionship with these boys. … To see that we are all one and we are all companions in this walk and in this life.”

There is, of course, The Long Walk’s big, looming question: what would motivate these boys to participate in a contest that almost inevitably will lead to their deaths? Wareing admitted it was “big conversation” that was prevalent while filming.

“I think it comes from a place of necessity,” he shared. “And I think it’s [the character] Gary [played by Charlie Plummer] who has a monologue where he speaks about [how] none of us sign up for this, not really. It’s expected of us, and it’s indoctrinated.”

He continued, “I think it’s social conditioning to feel like we must participate in this walk. And it comes from a place of need. And I think a lot of these boys, Stebbins included, come from a place of desire and needing to do this. If we all put in for this walk, are any of us really choosing [it]?”

It’s those types of questions and a complex character like the one of Stebbins that made Wareing so excited to be a part of a film like The Long Walk. The actor is clearly unendingly grateful for the opportunity, but his casting almost feels more like fate than anything else. Wareing revealed that he found out he got the role the same day he wrapped his first season of Ransom Canyon, leaving only three days in between filming for the Netflix show in Texas and starting work for The Long Walk in Canada.

“I was driving to Waffle House to meet my castmates for a final farewell dinner for a job well done on [that] season,” Wareing recalled. “And on the car ride over to that Waffle House, I got a call from my agent saying that they wanted me for Stebbins in The Long Walk. And I got to arrive to that Waffle House with the greatest news of what felt like my career, and share that with the friends who I actually taped with for the audition. My cast in Ransom Canyon went out to the desert with me and we all shot this tape together. And it was a team effort from the beginning.”

“It felt like a match made in Stephen King heaven,” Wareing added with a smile. “And the fact that I get to bring this character to life, this beloved character, it’s truly a wild dream come true.”

The Long Walk is in theaters now.