Miles Teller Reveals How Car Accident Scars Held Him Back at the Beginning of His Career

Miles Teller is known today for major roles in films like Whiplash and Top Gun: Maverick, but his path into Hollywood was far from easy. Long before he became a familiar face on screen, Teller was trying to break into the industry while dealing with the lasting marks of a car crash that nearly killed him.

Teller has spoken openly about the accident that happened when he was 20. He was riding with a friend when the driver lost control going high speed.

The vehicle rolled several times, and Teller was thrown from the car. He landed far from the wreck, unconscious and badly hurt. He later learned that doctors chose not to remove pieces of gravel still in his face because the procedure would create even more scarring.

Although he survived without permanent disability, the crash left him with visible scars that stayed with him during the early years of his career. Teller said he spent years going through painful treatments to lessen the marks, but the effects were slow. At the start of his auditioning days, he said people in the industry didn’t always look past his injuries.

“If you look at some of my early work, the scars on my face were really bad,” he said. “I would audition, and almost every casting director would tell my agent, ‘Miles is a really good actor, but it doesn’t make sense for this character to have scars.’”

Teller explained that many casting directors simply could not imagine the types of roles he read for being played by someone with visible injuries. That made finding work difficult, even though they praised his acting.

His first real breakthrough came when filmmaker John Cameron Mitchell chose him for the 2010 film Rabbit Hole. Teller has said that Mitchell didn’t view the scars as a problem at all. Instead, he embraced them. According to Teller, Mitchell told him, “I love your scars. It’s a mystery, and we don’t have to explain it.” That casting decision became a major turning point in Teller’s career.

Years later, Teller shared more details about the crash in an interview with ABC News. He recalled lying on the ground after being ejected from the car, covered in blood, while his friend believed he had died. The experience stayed with him, and even now, he still carries two small rocks embedded in his face.

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