Austin Butler Had To Establish A Boundary For Dune That He Didn't Have With Elvis
Overcommitted "Method" acting doesn't have to be a lifelong choice — just ask Austin Butler. The actor who famously gained an accent he had trouble losing to play Elvis Presley in "Elvis" can now be seen in theaters in a totally different role in "Dune: Part Two," and he says he tried to keep some work-life balance this time around.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Butler was asked if he chooses to stay in a "dark place" even after the cameras stop rolling to play a dark character. In "Dune: Part Two," the actor donned a bald cap and a serious scowl to play Feyd-Rautha, the ambitious Siridar-Baron who challenged Timothee Chalamet's Paul Atreides to a duel in the new film. It would've been tough to keep the mindset of Feyd-Rautha going 24/7 even if Butler had chosen to, but he told the LA Times he made the decision not to go too "Method" this time around.
Butler decided to leave Feyd-Rautha on set at the end of the day
"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," Butler explained. However, he added that doing the same thing with Feyd "would be unhealthy for my family and friends." Director Denis Villeneuve, also present for the interview, laughed as he added that Butler embodying Feyd-Rautha for the whole shoot would be unhealthy for him as well. While Butler doesn't explicitly say his time as The King was tough on him, he previously told Variety that he didn't see his family for 3 years while filming the Baz Luhrmann film.
"I was prepping with Baz, and then I went to Australia," he said in the Variety interview with Janelle Monae. "I had months where I wouldn't talk to anybody. And when I did, the only thing I was ever thinking about was Elvis. I was speaking in his voice the whole time." He also described the experience to GQ, saying, "You can lose touch with who you actually are. And I definitely had that when I finished Elvis — not knowing who I was."
Actors: they can be normal!
With all of this surely in mind, Butler said he "made a conscious decision to have a boundary" when filming "Dune: Part Two." As he put it, "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." This is an admirable choice that sounds like it was good for his mental health and relationships — not to mention his reputation. While going full "Method" (a term that's in air quotes here, as all-consuming character transformation has little to do with Stanislavski's Method) has earned plenty of actors Oscars, it's also been criticized in recent years as an excuse to act badly on and off set or develop overtly self-destructive habits.
There seems to be a chance for collateral damage when actors attempt to stay in character for months at a time, and it sounds like Butler wisely wanted to minimize that. "That's not to say that it doesn't bleed into your life," the actor told the LA Times. "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, I think."
While we won't begrudge anyone their process so long as it doesn't harm others, it's nice to hear that Butler found a more balanced method that works for him. Leaving Feyd-Rautha at work doesn't seem to have harmed his performance at all; Feyd is more than sufficiently creepy, and Butler's work has been lauded as a highlight of the film.
"Dune: Part Two" is now in theaters.