Olivia Wilde has shared how Walton Goggins stepped in and saved her life during a terrifying on-set accident while they were making Cowboys & Aliens more than a decade ago.
Goggins has earned plenty of admiration for his performances, and Wilde’s story adds another reason people think highly of him.
Back in 2011, the two actors appeared together in Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens, the sci-fi Western that mixed frontier action with extraterrestrial chaos and required a lot of horseback work from the cast.
Because of the movie’s setting, horseback riding was a major part of filming. Wilde explained that although she had years of experience riding horses, the Western style used for the film was very different from what she was used to.
That difference led to a frightening incident in the desert, where she says Goggins’ fast reaction prevented a fatal outcome.
According to Wilde, if he hadn’t acted when he did, she would have been left as “applesauce” beneath a stampede of horses.
The actor and filmmaker discussed the moment while appearing on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast as she promoted her new movie, The Invite.
During the conversation, she recalled how everything changed in an instant.
“Walt Goggins saved my life on that movie,” Wilde told Shepard and Monica Padman.
“I had a very bad horse accident and he saved me,” Wilde explained. “Basically, we were galloping across — I’ve ridden horses my whole life — I have a lot of confidence with riding English style; this was Western, different.”
She went on to describe the scale of the scene they were shooting, with several major stars riding at full speed across the landscape.
“And it was me and Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford galloping like full sprint across the desert. With like 40 horses behind us,” she said. “And it was like we were like leading the charge to fight the aliens or whatever — whatever we were doing in that movie.
“We got to a part where I could see ahead of us that there was a large ditch, like a six-foot ditch. And I was like, this horse is going to jump that ditch. And I’m on this western saddle, no helmet, because I’m playing like an old-timey lady.
“So sure enough, this horse jumps and bucks me off in the craziest way,” she explained, noting that she landed in a ‘lip’ where the other horses charging behind her wouldn’t have been able to detect her body – meaning they’d run right over her without sensing anything was wrong.
“And there was also a lot of dust,” she continued. “And 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 pulverized applesauce. Out. And I was waiting for it to happen.
Wilde then explained that Goggins saw what was happening and made a split-second decision that shielded her from the horses behind.
“Then Walt Goggins had seen it ahead of him. And in a split second, thought to turn his horse sideways, right in front of me and let everyone bash into him. And he’s a great rider, so he was able to handle that.
“And people split the two sides around us, thinking he had just like gone insane. But he was protecting my body on the ground. And so I owe him my life,” Wilde told the hosts.