Austin Butler reveals he went temporarily blind, almost cracked his ribs on set

Austin Butler

Hollywood actor Austin Butler has recently opened up about his health woes. The actor revealed that he temporarily lost his vision while filming his 2023 film, The Bikeriders.

During an interview with Men’s Health, Austin shared that he went blind for several minutes after he awoke with a terrible migraine on a flight. The actor initially ignored the pain and returned to the set the next day and assuming the incident was because of sleep deprivation.

However, the actor further revealed that it wasn’t just his eyesight that was waning. The actor woke up with intense, appendicitis-like pain and had to be hospitalised after he wrapped up his Oscar-nominated Elvis.

This wasn’t it, Austin then developed a sudden and terrible foot pain during the Dune: Part Two press tour. The actor explained that he walked with his toes curled for eight months to avoid extra discomfort after a piece of glass that was the size of a grain of rice was pricked in his toes.

Fortunately, Austin discovered that easing the pressure on himself and focusing less intensely on his craft has helped reduce his health scares, something he managed to achieve with a little support from Laura Dern.

Additionally, the actor also recalled how he almost cracked his ribs while filming a fight scene for his new movie, Caught Stealing, directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Austin said, “He [Aronofsky] put me through the ringer on this film. It’s a lot of running away from people chasing me with cars and getting beaten up repeatedly.” He added, “I get beaten up by these two Russians in this film. This one — Nikita [Kukushkin], who’s a short king — he’s got so much power. When he was kicking me, he didn’t want to kick me very hard. He felt bad and I kept telling him, ‘Just kick me. Just kick me harder.'"

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The actor further revealed that he could tell that his scene partner was still holding back, as “it doesn’t look real” after watching back some of the takes.

He added, “So he starts really laying into me and kicking me hard. But then he had this idea of headbutting me in the side like a little ram or something. And he did it so hard it almost cracked my rib with his head. I was very impressed.”

Caught Stealing will hit the theatres on August 29.