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Brennan Elliott recently opened up about a health battle he struggled with while filming his new movie with Lacey Chabert, “His & Hers.”
In an interview with the podcast Suspenders Unbuttoned, Elliott opened up about how difficult it was to film parts of the movie because of the medical issues he was dealing with at the time. He had to power through and overlook a doctor’s recommendations to get the movie done.
“It’s painful,” he recalled.
Elliott Had Kidney Stones During the First 2 Weeks of Filming
At about 17:44 into the interview, Elliott shared that he struggled with kidney stones during the first two weeks of his three-week filming schedule.
“My first two weeks of that three-week shoot, I had kidney stones…” he shared. “I got off the plane and I had wardrobe the next day and I remember waking up… I felt like I’d been shot in the back… I thought it would go away. It didn’t go away…”
He said he tried a remedy his mother had suggested, but it only helped a little bit.
“My mom was a nurse so she says get a bottle of …tart cranberry juice with lemon, it’ll flush out the kidney a little bit,” Elliott recalled “And then it worked a little bit, but I was in too much pain.”
He Had to Sit Awkardly During a Scene with Chabert
Because of the pain, he said he had to sit awkwardly during a scene with Chabert where they toast their marriage.
“I remember there’s a scene in the restaurant, the very first scene we shoot, where I cheers her (Lacey Chabert) and I tell her this is best seven years ever,” Elliott said. “And I’m sitting like this (he demonstrates an awkward sitting position) because of the pain… So they brought a doctor and he gave me this thing called Flomax which helps break it up. And then by the last week, I felt a little bit better. But I was a little worried, to be perfectly honest.”
Elliott said the experience gave him a deeper respect for women, since his doctor told him that the pain is similar to childbirth.
“It’s painful,” he said. “They call it men’s birthing, that’s what the doctor said… I’m like, ‘I would never have a child if I felt like this to give birth.’ I have so much more respect for women after that, let me tell you.”
His Doctor Recommended He Take 2 Weeks Off, But He Couldn’t Because of the Filming Schedule
Elliott told Suspenders Unbuttoned that other stars noticed his struggles during filming.
“I remember Clayton James, I had a scene with him,” he shared. “And he was like, ‘Hey man, you all right?’ I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘You kind of feel like you’re bending over a little bit. Are you all right? Your back hurts?’ I go, ‘Dude, I got kidney stones.'”
Because of how quickly they have to film Hallmark movies, Elliott couldn’t follow his doctor’s recommendation to take a break for his health.
“The doctor wanted me to take two weeks off and just rest cuz that’s the best medicine,” he said. “I said, ‘I only got two more weeks of shooting and I work for Hallmark and this is important. So we’re gonna bang this out.”
“There are also benefits,” he added. “It makes you focus more… It’s like, let’s just get in it and get it done.”
Elliott said that he was told his pain wasn’t noticeable on camera, and the Suspenders Unbuttoned hosts agreed.
“I was assured that it’s not noticeable by any stretch of the imagination,” he commented. “So I was quite happy… And these things happen. I’m sure other actors go through things in their lives and you try to include it into the work.”
Elliott Tries to Take His Struggles & Put Them Into His Work
Hard times and pain will happen while filming, Elliott said, but he tries to channel those experiences into his work. He had to do the same thing when he was filming “All of My Heart: The Wedding” shortly after his wife had her first cancer surgery, he shared at about 19:56 into the interview.
“I remember when I did ‘All of My Heart: The Wedding,’ my wife had just had her first major surgery for her journey with the cancer that she’s going through,” Elliott recalled. “I didn’t remember the first week after filming, I was just like, ‘What just happened?’ But there was something vulnerable in what I was doing that I might not have been able to instrumentally get to as an actor if things were just hunky dory. Everything happens for a reason. You include it in the work. And it is what it is.”
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