Austin Butler has revealed that he temporarily lost his sight and thought he was “dying” while on his way to shoot The Bikeriders.
In a cover story for Men’s Health, Butler said he was en route to film Jeff Nichols’ 2023 film when he “jolted awake with a terrible migraine” just before the plane landed and realised that he couldn’t see.
“It felt like the life was being sucked from my body,” Butler said. “I suddenly felt a euphoric sensation, and I actually genuinely thought I was dying.”
He says he was able to see after he “willed his sight to come back”, and then went to set and shot the film, chalking up the blindness to “sleep deprivation”.
However, the temporary blindness isn’t the only injury Butler divulged.
The actor also had a “piece of glass about the size of a grain of rice” removed from his foot eight months after the pain first started. Shortly after he finished shooting Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis in 2021, he spent time in hospital and then a week in bed after contracting a bad virus.
The Dune actor, known for his method acting, also shared that actors Tom Hardy and Laura Dern helped him balance his craft while also remaining healthy.
“For a long time, I felt that it had to be a tortured process and I would come out the other side broken,” he explained. “Rather than just putting parts of yourself away and trying to pretend that they don’t exist, it’s like going into the gross bits of yourself – going into the bits that you don’t want to look at – and finding a way of integrating that into the whole.”
Dern, who Butler met at an event, taught him how to ensure he doesn’t “destroy the rest of his life” when getting too involved in his roles.
“She’s helping me more and more to see that you can come out the other side, and maybe bits of you have healed, and synthesised, and metabolised. It can be therapeutic, in a way,” he said.
“You don’t have to destroy the light.”
Butler also took lessons on fixing his sleep schedule from his Bikeriders costar Tom Hardy, who would return after a night of filming to do 1,000 box jumps in a weighted vest.
Butler, who said he struggled with falling asleep after filming, began to do something similar. He started heading to the gym and working out for half an hour on the treadmill after setting a steep incline. This, followed by a sauna and a cold shower, helped Butler sleep better.
“I’m just trying to find little things like that. Sometimes it’s the mundane little things,” Butler said, adding that he has also started making sure he gets some sun during the day.
The Dead Don't Die star was last seen in Ari Aster’s Eddington, where he played cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak.
The Independent’s Sophie Monks Kaufman wrote in her four-star review: “This is Aster’s funniest film to date, and makes use of an ever expanding and shifting cast to dot the 150-minute runtime with well-observed comic details and visual payoffs.”
Butler will next be seen in Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing and Henry Dunham’s Enemies, alongside The Bear star Jeremy Allen White.
The Joaquin Phoenix-starrer Eddington brilliantly skewers modern America – review
Previously unheard Beatles tracks to accompany new Peter Jackson documentary episode
American Pie actor’s monthly income revealed in legal battle with ex-wife
Orlando Bloom shares view on Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean return
British rising star ‘screen-tests’ to replace Daniel Craig as Bond
Director of Netflix’s smash hit K-Pop Demon Hunters drops hints about sequel
