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Austin Butler shared that he once experienced a bout of temporary blindness while on a flight to film 2023’sThe BikeridersThe actor recalled that he was jolted awake with a migraine and “felt like the life was being sucked from my body” Thanks to mentors like Laura Dern, the actor has learned to take better care of himself and find a balance between work and his health
Although Austin Butler’s career is soaring, his health didn’t always keep pace.
Ahead of the release of his new film, Caught Stealing, the Elvis star, 34, revealed to Men’s Health in its September 2025 cover story that while he was on his way to film 2023’s The Bikeriders, he experienced a bout of temporary blindness.
The actor said he was jolted awake with a terrible migraine just as the plane was landing, and recalled, “It felt like the life was being sucked from my body.”
“I suddenly felt a euphoric sensation, and I actually genuinely thought I was dying,” he added.
Butler said he lost his vision for several minutes, but luckily, it slowly returned to normal. Despite this incident, the actor said he continued working and went on to spend the entire day on set. He told the outlet that he wrote off the incident as a side effect of sleep deprivation.
Austin Butler on Aug. 13, 2025.
Rick Kern/Getty
However, according to Central Valley Eye Medical Group, temporary blindness is not a recognized symptom of sleep deprivation. Instead, people deprived of sleep may experience issues such as blurry vision, eyestrain and trouble focusing.
According to Healthline, stress or chronic stress can lead to psychogenic blindness, which the outlet noted usually happens after a traumatic event.
Butler admitted to Men’s Health that he once believed struggle was essential to his craft when he first began his acting career, and has suffered several health challenges as a result. In addition to migraines, he also dealt with pain in his foot that lasted for months after his press tour for 2024’s Dune: Part Two and in 2021, he spent a week in the hospital due to appendicitis-like pain after filming Elvis.
“For a long time, I felt that it [acting] had to be a tortured process and I would come out the other side broken,” he shared of the period where he ignored symptoms of burnout.
However, thanks to several mentors, including Laura Dern, he learned that there could be a kind of balance between work and his health and that he didn’t need to sacrifice one for the other.
Austin Butler on Aug. 19, 2025.
John Phillips/Getty
“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 synthesized, and metabolized,” Butler said of Dern, 58. “It can be therapeutic, in a way.”
He told Men’s Health that in addition, he learned, “You don’t have to destroy the light.”
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Since then, Butler said he’s grown more comfortable with slowing down and making time for rest and recovery, while still maintaining the same level of commitment to his roles. Butler’s projects this year include Eddington and Caught Stealing.
Caught Stealing is in theaters Aug. 29.