Miles Teller got his start on the big screen starring opposite mega-star Nicole Kidman in John Cameron-Mitchell's 2010 drama "Rabbit Hole," and his career has only gotten more interesting after that. He's done superhero movies ("Fantastic Four"), an '80s film remake ("Footloose"), comedic flops ("That Awkward Moment"), YA adaptations ("The Divergent Series"), a highly-praised drama ("Whiplash"), and more. Now, Teller is set to appear in the long-awaited sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," which is only increasing the young actor's profile, and raising interest in his life story. One unique part of Teller's look is his facial scars, which have been integrated into his films on more than one occasion. So where did they come from? Here's the truth about how Miles Teller got his scars.
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00:00How did Miles Teller get his facial scars, and what impact did the accident that caused
00:05them have on his acting career? Keep watching to find out.
00:09Miles Teller just has one of those faces. The actor has built an impressive resume over
00:15the course of the past decade, starring in both blockbuster action movies and character-driven
00:20independent films in equal measure. And while some audiences might not have previously recognized
00:25Teller, the long-awaited sequel to 1986's Top Gun, Top Gun Maverick, has likely changed
00:31that.
00:32Teller plays Bradley Rooster Bradshaw, the son of Pete Maverick Mitchell's former radio
00:36intercept officer, best friend, and partner-in-crime Nick Goose Bradshaw, played by Anthony Edwards
00:42in the original film. The resemblance between these two unrelated actors is downright eerie,
00:47making Teller's casting a fitting choice.
00:50Teller made his feature film debut in 2010's Rabbit Hole, in which he starred opposite
00:54Nicole Kidman. In the 2011 remake of Footloose, he took on the role of Willard, a good-natured
01:00guy with two left feet. Teller's breakout performance was in the 2013 coming-of-age
01:05drama The Spectacular Now, which won the special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and
01:11proved that Teller could hold his own as a leading man for the first time.
01:15Some of his other film credits include the Oscar-nominated Whiplash, the Fantastic Four,
01:20and the Divergent trilogy. Given his wide-ranging success as a performer, it's hard to believe
01:25there was once a time when Teller was turned away after auditions because of his facial
01:30scars.
01:31During an interview with the ABC News' Popcorn with Peter Travers, Teller revealed that his
01:35face was wounded and subsequently scarred during his young adulthood, which then affected
01:40his burgeoning acting career. When he was 20 years old and attending college, Teller
01:44was injured in a serious car accident after his friend lost control of a vehicle while
01:49driving at 80 miles per hour. The car rolled eight times in total and ejected Teller 50
01:56feet away.
01:57We flipped like eight times going 80 miles per hour and I actually flew out my window.
02:01After being thrown from the vehicle, the actor ended up in such bad shape that his friend
02:05thought he might be dead.
02:07Fortunately, Teller survived the incident after sustaining some significant injuries
02:11to his face. Following the accident, Teller underwent multiple painful surgeries to remove
02:17the scar tissue resulting from his wounds over the course of roughly four years. As
02:21it turns out, he still has some pieces of gravel embedded in his face, which his doctors
02:26said would cause even more damage if removed rather than if left alone.
02:30For a while, Teller's appearance after the car accident stood in the way of his acting
02:34ambitions. As he told ABC News,
02:36When I first started auditioning, people were straight up just like, yeah, Miles is a good
02:41actor. But it doesn't make sense for this character to have scars. The scars used to
02:46be really bad.
02:47But I was very surprised about how comfortable people felt just being like, man, what happened
02:52to your face?
02:53Soon, however, one director took a chance on Teller when others would not, putting him
02:58on the career trajectory he maintains today.
03:00As Teller revealed in his interview with Peter Travers, Rabbit Hole director John Cameron
03:05Mitchell didn't just cast him in his debut feature in spite of his facial scars. Instead,
03:10the director saw the scars as a strength. Teller recounts Mitchell characterizing his
03:14scars as adding a new dimension to his character in the film. Beyond the mystique with which
03:19they imbue Teller's character, in Rabbit Hole, he portrays the driver of a car that killed
03:24a young boy in a happenstance accident. So the real-life source of his scars parallel
03:29this fictional incident.
03:31Teller would then go on to appear in The Spectacular Now and Whiplash, both of which include pivotal
03:37scenes in which Teller's character is involved in car accidents. So in the end, rather than
03:42his facial scars hindering him, they seemingly became part of his identity as an actor.
03:47As it turned out, Teller's scars helped to shape him and led him to roles for which this
03:52aspect of his appearance became a unique strength.
03:56Of course, Teller's filmography isn't limited to just films featuring car accidents, as
04:00evidenced by his marquee role in Top Gun Maverick. When Teller's casting was announced back in
04:052018, he beat out both Nicholas Holt and Glenn Powell, alongside whom he tested for the role.
04:11It's safe to say that, at this stage, Teller is unencumbered by his injuries and the hardships
04:17it caused early on in his career.