Tragic Details About Miles Teller
Miles Teller's star has been on the rise since he was cast alongside Nicole Kidman in the 2010 movie "Rabbit Hole." Since then, he has appeared in a plethora of popular movies, including 2014's "Whiplash," the "Divergent" series, and 2016's "War Dogs." Aside from his career, Teller has had somewhat of a heartwarming love story with his wife, Keleigh Sperry, with the couple even starring in a Taylor Swift music video together. But Teller's life has been far from perfect, with the actor facing several challenging events, ranging from serious health issues to public attacks.
Even with his major successes, Teller described in an interview with Men's Health his hesitancy toward fame, including with his blockbuster role in "Top Gun: Maverick." "I don't want this to come out the wrong way, but there was a part of me that didn't know if I wanted to be a part of something that could bring that much attention and success to me," he explained. "Everybody views success differently. For me, it didn't necessarily mean being a part of the biggest movie." Luckily, Teller accept a role in the movie, which led to reports he had grown close to Tom Cruise off screen after working so well with him.
While it has been rumored that there is a shady side to Teller, the "Allegiant" star has also faced some intense hardships throughout his life and career. Here, we explore some of the most tragic details about Miles Teller.
Miles Teller almost died in a car accident
When he was 20 years old, Miles Teller's life completely changed when he was involved in a serious vehicular accident. Discussing the terrifying, life-changing event, Teller recalled to W, "Some friends and I had been at the Gathering of the Vibes, a Deadhead festival in Connecticut, and we were driving back to my hometown in Florida. My buddy lost control of the car, jumped three lanes of traffic, and the car flipped eight times. I went out the window before the car started to roll."
Elaborating on the shocking incident, Teller told ABC News' "Popcorn With Peter Travers" that his friend had been driving at 80 miles per hour when the crash occurred. "My buddy thought I was dead," the actor explained. According to Teller, his friends initially couldn't find him as he had been thrown 50 feet from the vehicle, but when they did discover him, he had significant injuries. He broke his wrist, had multiple lacerations on his face, and seriously damaged his shoulder.
Having been involved in such a scary car accident informed Teller's life in many ways, including dramatically changing his friendships. "My junior-year roommate from NYU was the guy driving my car when we got in the accident," he noted to Esquire. While emphasizing he didn't blame his friend in any way, their friendship ended when Teller sued his friend's parents' insurance company to pay his extensive medical bills.
His scars hindered his acting career at first
Miles Teller sustained some serious injuries during that car wreck, including deep cuts to his face and neck. To remedy this, Teller had to undergo extensive medical treatment and was left with significant scarring. "I still have two rocks in my face," he said on "Popcorn with Peter Travers," sharing that removing them would have resulted in even more facial scars. The actor explained to the outlet that his treatment involved getting his scars lasered over a period of more than three years, a process which was extremely painful.
Teller was also forced to come to terms with the effect his visible injuries may have had on his acting career. "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,'" he told the publication. "They [the scars] used to be really bad."
Luckily, the actor was given his big break when he was cast in the 2010 movie, "Rabbit Hole," alongside Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. According to the actor, it was director John Cameron Mitchell who saw Teller's facial scars as pertinent to a role for the first time, as Teller plays a young man who's responsible for a car accident that results in the death of a child. Had it not been for Mitchell, Teller may have been continued to be overlooked because of his injuries.
Two of his friends died in car crashes weeks apart
Having lived through a major car accident himself, Miles Teller was faced with further tragedy when two of his close friends died one year later in crashes within weeks of one another. Opening up about the accidents, Teller told The Guardian, "Nick, passed away in a motorcycle accident: a car ran a stop sign and T-boned him." Unfortunately, Nick was only on life support for a day before it became evident that he would not survive his injuries. As Teller told Esquire, "I was in the hospital when they pulled the plug on my one friend. I knew what it felt like to hug a mother the day she lost her son."
Just weeks later, another of the actor's close friends, Beau, died due to another car accident. "And I was actually sitting next to Beau at Nick's funeral," he emotionally revealed to The Guardian. "So at my 21st birthday, seven of my buddies are there, five months later, two of them are gone."
The actor told Esquire that the director of "Rabbit Hole," John Cameron Mitchell, asked him to use the devastating experiences to fuel his role in the film. "I want you to see your friend Beau," Mitchell apparently urged Teller, who plays a character who is responsible for the death of a couple's young son. "I didn't wanna do it," he explained, which is more than understandable.
Teller ingested jet fuel while filming Top Gun: Maverick
One of the pinnacles of Miles Teller's career was when he was cast as a lead role in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick," the long-awaited sequel to the Tom Cruise 1986 classic. However, his experience playing Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw wasn't without its problems, especially when it came to flying. To get into character for the film, Teller and the other new cast members underwent flight training so they would be ready to film the jet sequences. After completing some aerial training exercises in the sky, the actor immediately felt unwell upon landing.
During an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Teller discussed the health emergency, saying, "I was really hot, and I just started itching like crazy. So I get out of the jet, and I'm just covered in hives, like, head to toe." In an attempt to reduce the skin reaction, Teller took an oatmeal bath, and he also underwent an extensive blood analysis to determine what had happened. "My blood work comes back, and I have flame-retardant, pesticides, and jet fuel in my blood," he told the host.
Recalling a conversation with co-star Cruise following the diagnosis, Teller told Meyers, "I was like, 'Well, Tom, it turns out I have jet fuel in my blood.' And without even skipping a beat, Tom just goes, 'Yeah, I was born with it, kid.'"
He was attacked on vacation with his wife and Shailene Woodley
In May 2021, reports emerged that Miles Teller had been involved in a violent altercation while vacationing in Maui, Hawaii. Teller was taking the trip with his wife, Keleigh Sperry, his close friend and former co-star Shailene Woodley, and her then-fiancé, NFL star Aaron Rodgers.
What was likely meant to be a relaxing vacation apparently went downhill when Teller was reportedly punched in the face while dining at Maui's Monkeypod Kitchen. Teller confirmed the incident on X, formerly known as Twitter, writing, "I got jumped by two guys in a bathroom. Never met them before in my life."
The Maui Police Department released a statement to Entertainment Weekly about the incident, saying, "On Wednesday, May 26, 2021, at about 7:30 p.m., police responded to a report of an assault that occurred at a West Maui restaurant involving a male victim and one responsible party." According to the publication, rumors had been circulating that Teller knew his assailants and was attacked because he owed someone money. However, his wife dispelled those rumors in an Instagram Story, and Teller later confirmed that he didn't know the men who hit him.
Lies in the press have affected him more than most
All celebrities find themselves the subject of news articles and reports on a regular basis. However, Miles Teller has had some bad luck when it comes to how he's portrayed in the press, and it seems as though he has often struggled to handle the unwanted negative attention. In an interview with Elle, the actor revealed that one particular online account seemed to be sharing rampant misinformation about him.
"There's this one person who follows me named 'Miles Teller Updates,'" he explained. Noting that he had no idea who was behind the account, Teller told the publication, "I've had articles come out about me. 'Miles Teller was out at this bar and he was hitting on the bartenders and he was so drunk when people tried to tell him to calm down he shoved them aside' ... It's this never-ending wormhole of people writing stuff to get hits."
As well as constantly contending with untrue clickbait, Teller was especially wounded by a widely-read Esquire article that called him a d***. In an interview with The Guardian, he opened up about incident, saying, "Oh, I felt frickin' helpless, I felt extremely misrepresented, I felt a little angry." Unsurprisingly, having his reputation commented on in such a public way was extremely hard for the actor to deal with, particularly as just that one terrible interview almost ruined Miles Teller's career forever.