Olivia Wilde Says Walton Goggins ‘Saved My Life’ on “Cowboys and Aliens ”Set, Calls Him a ‘Real Life Hero’

NEED TO KNOW

• On the Monday, June 29 episode of Armchair Expert, Olivia Wilde revealed Walton Goggins saved her life during a dangerous horse accident on the set of Cowboys and Aliens

• Goggins used his horse to shield Wilde from a stampede of 40 horses after she was thrown and injured

• Wilde recently dedicated her new movie, The Invite, to the late Diane Keaton, calling her a unique inspiration

Olivia Wilde owes her life to Walton Goggins!

On the Monday, June 29 episode of Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Expert podcast, Wilde, 42, spoke about the incident that took place on the set of the 2011 western sci-fi movie Cowboys and Aliens in which both she and Goggins, 54, starred.

“Walt Goggins saved my life on that movie,” Wilde told Shepard. “He did. I had a very bad horse accident, and he saved me. It was me and Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford [who also starred] 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.” 

The Don’t Worry Darlingdirector then said that the horse threw her off when jumping over a “large ditch.”

She continued, “This horse jumps and bucks me off in the craziest way,” she said. “I fell off. I hit my head and my back, and I was laying [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 mom of two then opened up to Shepard about the grave danger she realized she was in. 

“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,” she said.

However, she went on to explain that the Django Unchained actor came to her aid. 

“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,” Wilde continued. “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.”

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She concluded, “And so I owe him my life. It’s crazy. He’s a real-life hero.” 

Elsewhere, Wilde has recently dedicated her new movie, The Invite, to the late Diane Keaton and at the flick’s premiere on June 24, she explained to The Hollywood Reporter why.

“I really wanted to show this movie to Diane. I don’t think that there is an Invite without Diane Keaton because she’s in so many of the films that inspired this film,” director Wilde said of Keaton, who died aged 79 in October. 

“She is the first actress I recognized to kind of represent a totally unique and complex woman; she didn’t fit any archetype, she was singular in her vulnerability, her complexity, her creativity,” Wilde added.

She concluded, “She’s unlike anyone else and she was very encouraging to me personally. And I just wanted this to be for her.”

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