Cooper Hoffman and his costars put in the miles, literally, for his latest role in The Long Walk.
The 22-year-old actor appeared on the Today Show on Sept. 5 to talk about the Stephen King adaptation, which opens in theaters on Sept. 12.
Hoffman stars as Raymond Garraty, contestant #47 in a deadly walking contest where only one survivor remains.
“We’re actually walking,” Hoffman explained, revealing just how physically demanding filming became.
“We ended up walking close to 400 miles in total. We’re walking, like, 15 miles a day in 100-degree heat on concrete, no shade.”
Directed by Hunger Games filmmaker Francis Lawrence and adapted by JT Mollner, the film brings King’s 1979 dystopian horror novel to the screen for the first time.
Alongside Hoffman, the cast includes Mark Hamill as the authoritarian Major, with David Jonsson, Ben Wang, Charlie Plummer, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot and others portraying fellow walkers trapped in the brutal competition.
Hoffman admitted the experience was as intense as the story itself.
“There was a real, when you got there and you started walking, anxiety of actually making it through the day,” he said.
Still, the cast bonded through the challenge.
At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Wareing shared with PEOPLE how the group found comfort together after grueling days in the heat.
“The brotherhood that you see on screen is the brotherhood that we had in person and in between takes. We were listening to music, we were decompressing,” he said, adding that ice cream runs to Dairy Queen became their much-needed ritual.
“I would sleep for those two days on the weekend,” Wareing added with a laugh. “And then hit the ground running, hit the ground walking, on Monday.”
