Austin Butler spent three years researching and preparing for the role of Elvis Presley and never let go of the singer’s southern drawl throughout this period. Butler’s method acting was so intense for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis that he decided to tone it down when it came to his role in Dune: Part Two. It would have been very unhealthy for him and everyone surrounding him since he played the sociopathic villain Feyd-Rautha in the film.
Butler’s acting has received praise from critics who deemed the film the definitive sci-fi epic of a generation in their first reviews. Butler along with Florence Pugh, Lea Seydoux, and Christopher Walken are the new additions to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune sequel.
Austin Butler Made A Conscious Decision To Tone Down His Method Acting
Austin Butler proved to be one of the finest actors of the new Hollywood era. His performance in Elvis earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination and landed him roles in several acclaimed projects. The Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood actor was cast as the ruthless Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen and the potential successor of House Harkonnen, in Dune: Part Two. He will serve as the primary antagonist to Timothée Chalamet‘s Paul Atreides in this sequel.
Butler appeared alongside director Denis Villeneuve in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, where he opened up about playing the villain in the film. One specific thing he did for the role was to tone down his method acting. He revealed that while playing Elvis Presley, he only thought about the character all day long for three years. But he couldn’t do the same for Feyd as it would harm his family and friends if he acted like a sociopath in front of them. Butler told the Los Angeles Times:
“I’ve definitely in the past, with ‘Elvis,’ explored living within that world for three years and that being the only thing that I think about day and night. With Feyd, I knew that that would be unhealthy for my family and friends.”
Villeneuve shared that it would have been unhealthy for him and the crew too if Butler was in character the whole time. However, the director shared that he rather had fun working with the actor. Butler shared that he decided to set a boundary with his character so that everyone outside of the context of the film was not impacted. However, he admitted that the character did sometimes bleed into his life. Butler shared:
“I made a conscious decision to have a boundary. It allowed for more freedom between action and cut because I knew I was going to protect everybody else outside of the context of what we were doing. That’s not to say that it doesn’t bleed into your life. But I knew that I wasn’t going to do anything dangerous outside of that boundary, and in a way that allowed me to go deeper.”
Denis Villeneuve shared that Austin Butler was only 25-30% in character when he was off-camera. This helped him to stay focused on the character, but at the same time, removed enough to interact with the cast or, as the director puts it, to not “kill anybody on set”.
Austin Butler Was Warned By Tom Hanks About Emotional Whiplash
Austin Butler was already warned by his Elvis co-star Tom Hanks about the potential effects of his method acting. Hanks played Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager in the film. Hanks had witnessed Butler’s struggles to portray the character authentically. During an interview with The Times, Butler revealed that the Forrest Gump actor had a few words of advice for him after Elvis.
Hanks shared with the Zoey 101 actor that he should dive straight into another project to avoid any “emotional whiplash”. He advised that the intense Elvis role would have taken a toll on the up-and-coming actor’s mental health and other less intense projects would help him take his mind off the character. Butler recalled Hanks’ advice to The Times:
“[Hanks] said, ‘You have immersed yourself so deeply in Elvis that, for your mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else. If you just jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash…”
It appears that Austin Butler has taken Tom Hanks’ words seriously and has been involved in many different projects since the film. While his roles have been somewhat intense, he strives not to make the same mistake with Method acting again. Dune: Part Two will hit theatres on March 1.
