Gerard Butler accidentally rubbed phosphoric acid on his face filming 'Plane,' felt he was 'burning alive'

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Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines January 12

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Gerard Butler described this week how he accidentally rubbed acid on his face while filming a scene for his new action movie, "Plane." 

The actor joked that no matter what he does, he "manages to hurt" himself. 

Butler explained on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" that in the scene in which he burned himself, he was pretending to be assessing what was wrong with an airplane so that they could take off again.

"It’s something in the wheel, so it’s a brake," he said. "Now, I’m sticking my hand between these two wheels, kind of pretending that I know what I’m doing in there, you know?"

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Gerard Butler told Seth Meyers on Tuesday that he accidentally rubbed phosphoric acid on his face while shooting the action movie "Plane." (Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Images)

Butler said that every time he brought his hands out from between the wheels, they were covered in blood and green fluid: "And I don’t know what this green fluid is."

They were shooting in Puerto Rico, the actor said, explaining that he was sweating from the heat and the adrenaline of shooting the scene. 

Gerard Butler stars in "Plane," which bows this weekend. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images/File)

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"With COVID, you realize how this thing spreads," he said.

"I must have been, I’m rubbing my face. Suddenly, it’s in my throat, it’s in my mouth, it’s up my nose, it’s in my eyes, it’s burning my face, and I mean burning. And it turns out this is essentially phosphoric acid," Butler said to gasps from the audience.

Gerard Butler in a scene from "Plane." (Kenneth Rexach/Lionsgate via AP)

The airline pilots who were consulting on the set were screaming "No!" and there was confusion over how to treat the burns, he told Meyers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends immediately flushing the area with water.

"So, I’m just like burning alive. It was intense, and it actually burned for hours, but it was great for the scene," Butler laughed.

Gerard Butler said his face "burned for hours" after he accidentally rubbed acid on it. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images/File)

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Meyers joked that knowing what he does about COVID protocols on sets, "There were probably 10 people there making sure nobody gave each other COVID and not one person keeping you from putting acid on your face."