Austin Butler Went Temporarily Blind Before Filming ‘The Bikeriders’: “Thought I Was Dying”
Amid a busy few years for Austin Butler, the actor went straight to work on a leading role the day he suffered a bizarre medical episode.
The Oscar nominee revealed that he experienced temporary blindness for a few minutes after he was awaken by a terrible migraine on a flight to film The Bikeriders, just as he was landing in Cincinnati, Ohio to begin production on the Jeff Nichols film.
“It felt like the life was being sucked from my body,” recalled Butler to Men’s Health. “I suddenly felt a euphoric sensation, and I actually genuinely thought I was dying.”
Chalking the episode up to a symptom of sleep deprivation, Butler noted his vision slowly returned and he went to set, working the rest of the day.
Inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photo book of the same name, writer/director Nichols’ The Bikeriders follows the founding of the Vandals MC, a fictional late ’60s Midwestern motorcycle club that begins as a place for outsiders before evolving into a full-blown gang.
Austin Butler as Benny in ‘The Bikeriders’
Butler said of acting, “For a long time, I felt that it had to be a tortured process and I would come out the other side broken.”
After taking on several dark roles, the Elvis star credited actress Laura Dern with “helping me more and more to see that you can come out the other side, and maybe bits of you have healed, and synthesized, and metabolized. It can be therapeutic, in a way.”
Butler now prioritizes health and rest amid his busy schedule. “You don’t have to destroy the light,” he said.
