While Miles Teller appeared in several short films throughout the mid and late 2000s, it wasn’t until 2013’s Whiplash that his career eventually took off. But prior to landing the lead gig in the Oscar-winning drama, Teller’s career came to a standstill following a near-fatal accident, which he suffered between his sophomore and junior years of college.
Although the Top Gun: Maverick Star was deemed lucky to make it out of the car crash per his doctor, the scars he endured following this accident had an adverse effect on his career at the time.
Miles Teller Struggled to Land Roles Following His Face Injuries
Even though Miles Teller didn’t suffer any grave injuries despite getting ejected out of the car’s window and landing 50 feet away, his face wasn’t that lucky, as he endured several scars. Per The Guardian, he said,
“The guy driving, he was fine, my buddy he was sleeping in the back,” Teller recalls. “I even had a bag of tomatoes that were fine. Everything was fine except for my face.”
These scars resulted in the actor losing out on several roles following the accident, as despite his skills as an actor, the scars on his face weren’t seen as suitable for certain roles. He recalled,
“When I first started auditioning, people were straight up just like, ‘Yeah, Miles is a good actor, [but it] doesn’t make sense for this character to have scars,'” Teller said. “They [the scars] used to be really bad.”
Fortunately, these scars that prevented him from landing several roles, became beneficial for his first major role in Rabbit Hole, as the director said that it added a sense of mystery to his character.
Working On Rabbit Hole Was Not a Pleasant Experience for Miles Teller
While Rabbit Hole, starring Nicole Kidman, put Miles Teller on the map, who would eventually land the part of Andrew in Whiplash, the actor didn’t have an enticing experience in his first feature film. Considering Nicole Kidman wanted to replicate the same bond on set as their film counterparts, this resulted in a horrible experience for a young Teller, as their characters hated each other in the film. Recounting the horrible experience, Teller told The Daily Telegraph Australia,
“Nicole had an idea that she wanted us to develop a kind of relationship as our characters did. So at the beginning she didn’t talk to me at all, then as we did our first scene, then she talked to me a little more and then by the end of it we would talk in between. She said ‘Oh Miles, you did such a wonderful job and I am sorry I had to do that to you, especially seeing as it was your first movie, but I thought it was important to go through that on camera’.”
Although with time he was able to get rid of most of his scars following laser surgeries, he still has two pieces of gravel in his face, as removing them could end up being more scarring for Teller.
Rabbit Hole is available to rent on Apple TV.
