Much has been made about Austin Butler’s immersive journey into playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” The actor recently said he didn’t see his family for three years (see below) during his intense preparation and shooting of the movie. It seems like overdoing it on the surface, but playing an artist that iconic is pretty intimidating, and it’s not a role you want to whiff. It’s also already gotten him a ton of work and will likely earn him an Academy Award for Best Actor when the Oscar nominations are announced.
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Coming up next for Butler is Cary Fukunaga’s “Masters of Air,” a WWII fighter plane drama for Apple, Jeff Nichols’ biker gang movie, “The Bikeriders,” and “Dune: Part Two,” directed by Denis Villeneuve (he’s also rumored for Marvel‘s “Fantastic Four,” but there’s no real reporting on that yet).
For “Dune: Part Two,” due November 3, 2023, Butler, in a conversation with Backstage, says he worked with a Navy Seal to get into physical shape. “For Dune, there were different challenges; there were certain physical things from the first meeting with Denis, [knowing] what his vision was,” Butler explained. “I worked with this…Navy Seal [guy] who trained me for months beforehand just to get my body into a place where it was available to not only be an imposing physical presence but do whatever was asked of me.”
Butler even revealed that he had to start his training during the Cannes Film Festival press for “Elvis.” “The interesting thing was doing that in the middle of Elvis press,” Butler said of his training and how it differed from Elvis since he was mono-focused on that for at least a year before he shot the movie. “I was doing that until Cannes, and then I was having to do all the press during the day and then train at night. That was a thing I had to manage during Elvis. [During Elvis], I could completely eliminate everything in the outside world, and now I had to learn how to do that in the midst of balancing other things, but it’s still all that all-encompassing energy. I love living in these other worlds… I just let it consume me.”
Butler had high praise for his Dune director during the podcast talk and shared an enthusiasm that rivaled his love for Luhrmann. “Denis is so thoughtful, he doesn’t miss anything, and his attention to detail is remarkable,” he said. “Denis is amazing; he’s such an incredible director. The energy on his sets is amazing, everyone trusts him so much, and it’s such a well-oiled machine, and he’s a master of the craft.”
In the backstage conversation about prepping for the role and working with Villeneuve, Butler revealed his charismatic, ambitious, but terribly evil character Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen thinks he’s the hero of his own story.
He and Denis would “really try to dig into the humanity of [the character]. It’s that thing of the bad guy in the world doesn’t feel like he’s the bad guy,” Butler explained/“He feels like he’s the hero of his own story. And that can be a hard thing with certain characters; with others, it’s easier, but you have to not judge the character, and you have to find a way to feel the motivation towards anyone of your actions. So, we had a lot of conversations and crafted that together.”
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is despicable in the book, so Butler may be alluding to the difficulties of empathizing with a repulsive and irredeemable character such as this one. Certainly, that’s tough to do, and a tough ask for the audience. Still, if they can move the audience’s sympathies even just a tiny little bit, perhaps understand his point of view and ambition, that certainly would be an exciting feat.
“Dune: Part Two” is due in theaters on November 3, 2023, and is high on our list of the 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2023. Check out the entire conversation below, as Butler dives into all things “Elvis,” working with Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”) and, of course, working with Villeneuve.