Steve Howey Reveals 'Surreal,' Real Life Hospital Moment Before 'Brilliant Minds' Appearance (Exclusive)

Ahead of Steve Howey's guest starring appearance on NBC's newest medical series Brilliant Minds along side Emmy nominee Zachary Quinto, the Shameless star exclusively shared his crazy encounter while in the hospital with TooFab.

"This was pretty surreal. In a pickup game, I snapped my Achilles tendon," the 47-year-old told TooFab. "I snapped it like a rubber band. So I went to one of the best facilities in Southern California, Kerlan-Jobe, did the surgery. And as I'm waking up, I look across in the waiting, the coming to area. And I'm looking and I'm like, I'm hallucinating," Howey recalled before he revealed who he thought he saw.

"Is that Stone Cold Steve Austin? And I was like, I'm totally hallucinating. This is crazy," Howey said before adding that he actually wasn't hallucinating and the former professional wrestler was in fact staring back at him.

"And it was. It was him. It was Stone Cold. And it was he just got done doing knee surgery. And we were facing each other in these gurneys waking up out of surgery."

Howey takes on the role as Wyatt James in the new series, a motorcycle mechanic who accidentally shoots himself. While he is being attended to by Dr. Oliver Wolf [Quinto] and subsequent MRI, a tumor affecting his memory is found in Wyatt's brain.

"Zach Quinto is a phenomenal actor," Howey said of his experience working on set.

"I was really impressed, it was the first time I ever worked with him. For lack of a better word, he's a brilliant actor. He was very personable in between setups and not shooting. And then when we were shooting, he was so intense," he continued, before adding how much "easier" that makes his job when there is a lot to "bounce off of."

During the intense episode, Howey battles with a life-changing decision of getting his tumor removed -- which would cause him to no longer make new memories -- or leaving it intact and forgetting his past. As for what Howey himself would do, he told TooFab, "Just no more memories ... No, no, no. I joke."

"If I could forget the entire past, I don't know. That's something to think about. There is a line in the script it says, 'For Wyatt to heal, he needs to learn how to make peace with the past,'" I thought that was very beautiful and profound aren't we all trying to do that make peace with the past?"

Howey also described how the character made him think about his own "mortality" and how easy it is to ignore something happening in your body when life gets too busy.

"There were moments where I was thinking about my own mortality and what I've been through and where I'm going and in the present. Especially being a father with three kids and how my life affects their life and their life affects mine," said Howey -- who shares children William, Violet, and Knox with his ex, The L Word alum Sarah Shahi -- before imagining if Wyatt's situation was his own.

"What would it be if I had this tumor that was pressing on the fornix that was affecting my memory. It's it just makes you realize how precious every moment is."

Brilliant Minds is inspired by the world-renowned queer neurologist and author Oliver Sacks. He wrote a number of bestselling books based on his case studies before he died at age 82 in 2015.

The NBC series follows the revolutionary, larger-than-life physician and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier - the human mind - while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.

Watch Brilliant Minds on Mondays at 10pm.