{"id":99354,"date":"2025-08-27T09:46:30","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T09:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99354\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T09:46:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T09:46:30","slug":"heres-why-austin-butler-went-temporarily-blind-while-filming-the-bikeriders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/99354\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s Why Austin Butler Went Temporarily Blind While Filming \u2018The Bikeriders\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin Butler<\/a> may be one of Hollywood\u2019s most dedicated actors, but his commitment to the craft nearly came at a dangerous cost while filming The Bikeriders.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 motorcycle drama.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like the life was being sucked from my body,\u201d Butler told Men\u2019s Health<\/a>. \u201cI suddenly felt a euphoric sensation, and I actually genuinely thought I was dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The terrifying moment didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/p>\n

Austin Butler Is in ‘Pole Position’ to Be Offered Pirates Role<\/p>\n

Based on Danny Lyon\u2019s 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\u2019t new \u2014 but he admits the toll it has taken hasn\u2019t always been healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, I felt that it had to be a tortured process and I would come out the other side broken,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n

Butler, who famously embodied Elvis for nearly three years (so much so that he required a dialect coach afterward to \u201cun-Elvis\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where actress Laura Dern<\/a> entered the picture. Butler credits the Oscar winner with changing the way he thinks about his work. \u201cShe\u2019s 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,\u201d Butler said. \u201cIt can be therapeutic, in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cIt was like the whole room just quieted, and we connected on a soul level. We felt like kindred spirits\u2026 My mom was even told that she looked like Laura Dern, and so as soon as I saw her, it\u2019s like, \u2018She looks like my actual mom.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Thanks to Dern\u2019s guidance, Butler has started to embrace a new perspective: that embodying darker roles doesn\u2019t have to destroy him. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to destroy the light,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin Butler may be one of Hollywood\u2019s most dedicated actors, but his commitment to the craft nearly came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64,59717,63,17614,137,61071,514,515,72555],"class_list":{"0":"post-99354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austin-butler","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-elvis-presley","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-laura-dern","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-mentalhealth","16":"tag-sleep-deprivation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}