Austin Butler may be one of Hollywood’s most dedicated actors, but his commitment to the craft nearly came at a dangerous cost while filming The Bikeriders.
Amid a busy few years that saw him transform into Elvis Presley on the big screen, Butler revealed that he experienced a frightening medical episode just as he was heading into his next leading role. The Oscar nominee shared that he went temporarily blind after being hit with a severe migraine on a flight to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was set to begin work on Jeff Nichols’ motorcycle drama.
“It felt like the life was being sucked from my body,” Butler told Men’s Health. “I suddenly felt a euphoric sensation, and I actually genuinely thought I was dying.”
The terrifying moment didn’t last long, but it shook him. Butler explained that his vision slowly returned and he chalked it up to extreme sleep deprivation. Rather than resting, though, the 33-year-old actor powered through and went straight to set, filming for the rest of the day.
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Based on Danny Lyon’s 1968 photo book, The Bikeriders tells the story of the Vandals MC, a fictional motorcycle club that begins as a safe haven for outsiders before spiraling into a dangerous gang. For Butler, diving into such heavy material isn’t new — but he admits the toll it has taken hasn’t always been 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 shared.
Butler, who famously embodied Elvis for nearly three years (so much so that he required a dialect coach afterward to “un-Elvis” himself), has long practiced intense method acting. His approach has earned him critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination, but also left him emotionally and physically drained.
That’s where actress Laura Dern entered the picture. Butler credits the Oscar winner with changing the way he thinks about his work. “She’s helping me more and more to see that you can come out the other side, and maybe bits of you have healed, synthesized, and metabolized,” Butler said. “It can be therapeutic, in a way.”
The Jurassic Park and Big Little Lies star quickly became an unlikely mentor to Butler after they met, a connection he describes as soul-deep. “It was like the whole room just quieted, and we connected on a soul level. We felt like kindred spirits… My mom was even told that she looked like Laura Dern, and so as soon as I saw her, it’s like, ‘She looks like my actual mom.’”
Thanks to Dern’s guidance, Butler has started to embrace a new perspective: that embodying darker roles doesn’t have to destroy him. “You don’t have to destroy the light,” he said.