NEWSOlivia Wilde Credits 'Hero' Walton Goggins for 'Saving My Life' as She Was Almost 'Pulverized' by a Horse During 'Cowboys & Aliens' Stunt
Olivia Wilde recalled the 'crazy' accident that occurred on set.
June 30 2026, Published 3:07 p.m. ET
Olivia Wilde credited Cowboys & Aliens costar Walton Goggins for keeping her alive after a stunt went wrong while filming the 2011 movie.
The actress recounted the scary story during the Monday, June 29, episode of the "Armchair Expert" podcast.
"Walt Goggins saved my life on that movie. He did," she insisted. "I had a very bad horse accident, and he saved me."
Olivia Wilde said she owes Walton Goggins her life after he saved her from being trampled by horses.
Wilde recalled how she, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford were "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 mom-of-two said she was "confident" riding "like English style, but this was western" and different.
"And we were at that point, like two months in, and we' gotten real cocky with it," she confessed. "And we were pretty competitive."
Olivia Wilde Thought She Was Going to Be 'Pulverized' by a Horse
Walton Goggins, a 'great rider,' saved the actress from being trampled.
"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 House alum shared. "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."
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'He's a Real-Life Hero'
Despite the scare, Olivia Wilde raved over working on the 'fun' movie.
"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. And he’s a great rider, so he was able to handle that," she noted on the White Lotus star. "People split the two sides around us thinking he had just gone insane, but he was protecting my body on the ground. And so I owe him my life. It’s crazy. He’s a real-life hero."
'The Experience Was the Most Fun I've Ever Had'
The incident happened on the 'Cowboys & Aliens' set.
Despite the serious scare, she raved over her experience of filming the movie.
"Cowboys and Aliens had every brilliant person in it. The experience was the most fun I've ever had," gushed Wilde. "It was like riding horses with Han Solo. Yeah. It was literally Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig and me and Sam Rockwell who became one of my best friends."
