Olivia Wilde has credited Walton Goggins for "saving her life" amid a "bad horse accident" on the set of 2011 film, Cowboys & Aliens.
During an interview for the Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, the actress-filmmaker recalled how she was nearly trampled in a horse stampede while filming a scene for the Jon Favreau-directed space Western, which co-stars Goggins, Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell.
"Walt Goggins saved my life on that movie," she told co-host Dax Shepard. "He did. I had a very bad horse accident, and he saved me... It was me and Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford galloping, like, full sprint across the desert with 40 horses behind us. And it was like we were leading the charge to fight the aliens or whatever."
However, Olivia's horse jumped over a "large ditch" during the take, and she fell in the "craziest way".
"I hit my head and my back, and I was lying (on the ground) but, unfortunately, I was on the other side of this kind of lip of dirt, meaning that all horses behind couldn't see me. And there was also a lot of dust," the 42-year-old continued. "I remember having my ear to the ground, and I could hear it, and it sounded like thunder, like they were coming towards me. And I had the thought - it sounds so dramatic - but I thought, 'It'll be quick.' It'll be like, pulverised applesauce. Out."
But due to the quick thinking of Walton, Olivia managed to escape unscathed.
"Walt Goggins had seen (me) ahead of him and in a split-second thought to turn his horse sideways right in front of me and let everyone kind of bash into him," she remembered. "And he's a great rider, so he was able to handle that. People split the two sides around us thinking he had just gone insane, but he was protecting my body on the ground. And so, I owe him my life. It's crazy. He's a real-life hero."
Olivia is currently promoting her new comedy film, The Invite, which she directed and co-stars in alongside Seth Rogen and Penélope Cruz.
