Scott Eastwood recently shared rare details about the tragic death of his former girlfriend, Jewel Brangman, who died in a car accident in 2014. Speaking on the "Armchair Expert" podcast, Eastwood explained that Brangman's death was the result of a defective airbag in a car that was subject to a recall.
"They had a recall on the airbag and what would have been a fender bender that probably most people would survive… she was essentially shot by the airbag," Eastwood said. He elaborated that the airbag's malfunction caused a projectile to strike her fatally.
Eastwood, who was dating Brangman for several years, described the difficulty of being on a film set when such a loss occurred. "Being on a film set when someone passes or something happens, it’s really tough because you don’t have time to grieve. The show must go on," he stated. "You can’t fly home, you’re stuck, you’ve got to work."
He admitted to using a defense mechanism of compartmentalizing his grief at the time, a decision he now regrets. "Brutal having to deal with that and not being able to go through it. I grieved later," Eastwood recounted. "That’s not a great thing. You do want to grieve with the people that are around that you know and were part of their lives as well. That’s an important part of the grieving process."
Eastwood said he "completely blacked out" the immediate aftermath and missed Brangman's funeral, partly due to work commitments and his inability to process the loss at the moment. Brangman, who was 26 at the time of her death, was a model and gymnast.
This is not the first time Eastwood has spoken publicly about the incident. In a 2016 interview with GQ Australia, he briefly mentioned the loss, stating, "I dated a girl a couple of years ago who died in a car accident." He further revealed the airbag detail, which he had not shared publicly until recently, explaining, "Her airbag exploded. It shot a projectile through her body. It split her spleen and… I’ve never told anybody that."
Eastwood noted that losing Brangman, someone he was intimately involved with, has been the most profound loss he has experienced and has made dating more challenging for him.