Austin Butler cracked his rib while filming brutal fight scene for Masters of the Air

Austin Butler has revealed how he broke his rib during the filming for Masters of the Air.

The miniseries, from executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, follows a group of pilots in World War Two as they undertake a series of dangerous bombing campaigns.

If that doesn't sound like a winning television formula then I don't know what does.

The AppleTV series stars Austin Butler as pilot Major Gale Cleven, who seems to have gotten more than he bargained for during production.

Butler told Variety how he had been filming a fight scene on set when he was injured, and it turned out that he had cracked a rib.

Ouch.

But the actor said that despite the injury, he had to 'keep fighting' and finish the scene.

He said: “It hurts for a long time after because every time you breathe, you feel your ribs. But it could have been worse.”

The series follows the US Air Force’s 100th bomb group, who were nicknamed the 'Bloody Hundredth' over their high number of casualties.

Butler previously raised eyebrows online after his last role, playing the king of rock n' roll in Elvis.

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It was noted that Butler appeared to not have lost his accent after production on the project wrapped.

The change was so noticeable that a dialect coach was even hired to help the actor to ditch the telltale twang.

Speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Butler said: “I was just trying to remember who I was, I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years."

He continued: “And then I had that week off and then I flew to London and at that time it was COVID so I’m quarantined for 10 days, so I thought alright just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.

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“I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis in that film, that was the whole thing.”

And it turns out that Tom Hanks was the key to Butler ahem, landing, his latest role.

He had been having dinner with Hanks in Australia, and Hanks had joked that was going to 'lose your mind' after finishing the Elvis project - as he had been so focussed on it - and that he needed something else to focus on.

Butler said: “And the other producer, Pat McCormick, who is a good friend of mine, he said, ‘Well Tom, find him something to do,’ and then Tom said, ‘Well I’ve got this World War II thing I’m working on.’”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Masters of Air is now streaming with new episodes out Fridays.