Austin Butler's Dune: Part Two Voice Demands Further Examination
"Dune" brought us the pale and terrifying villains of House Harkonnen. The enormous, pale, floating Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) leads the house that stands in stark opposition to House Atreides, putting him in direct conflict with the surviving Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), who is seeking to strike back in the wake of his father's death and the fall of his family's power. Standing alongside the Baron is the savage Glossu "The Beast" Rabban (Dave Bautista), the Baron's nephew who has something to prove in "Dune: Part Two" after failing House Harkonnen in quite a humiliating fashion. That's why the Baron calls upon Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen (Austin Butler), another nephew who may have the ferocious, sadistic warrior's instinct required to keep Paul Atreides from becoming the revolutionary leader who threatens their stronghold in the "Dune" universe.
The role of Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is on the complete other end of the spectrum from Austin Butler's Oscar-nominated performance as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's stylish biopic. Not only did Butler's performance in "Dune: Part Two" require a dramatic physical transformation, giving him the Harkonnen's signature pale skin and shaved head, but Butler put on an entirely different kind of voice to play the character. Thankfully, Butler shed the Elvis voice that stuck with him long after production on "Elvis," with the help of a dialect coach who helped him lose it for the "Masters of the Air" series on Apple TV+, and he fully transformed into a horrifying individual in order to bring the intimidating and deadly Feyd-Rautha to life for director Denis Villeneuve.
With Stellan Skarsgård serving as his familial leader, Butler adopted the voice and speaking cadence of the experienced actor (who has starred in everything from "The Hunt for Red October" to "Good Will Hunting" to "Mamma Mia!"). The vocal performance makes him sound like the twisted brother of "The Northman" star Alexander Skarsgård, and it's one hell of a performance. How did he pull it off?
'The Baron would be a big influence on him in many ways'
When you hear Austin Butler speak in "Dune: Part Two," it's rather shocking. Not only does Butler sound nothing like any of his previous performances, bearing no resemblance to his Elvis Presley voice, but it's almost like he's stolen someone else's voice. And that's largely because he has. Butler has explained in several interviews that he was originally using a version of his own voice when playing Feyd-Rautha but that he thought it sounded too contemporary. The actor explained to Entertainment Weekly the realization that ultimately helped him find the right voice:
"I felt that because he grew up with the Baron, the Baron would be a big influence on him in many ways. So then I started thinking about the way that he speaks, and that being linked to the person that you see with the most power from the time that you're a child, who you do end up emulating in some way."
There's a slight gruffness to Stellan Skarsgård's natural voice, but as the Baron, the actor pushes it down to a more villainous tone, one that feels like it's weighed down by his massive body. Butler borrowed some of Skarsgård's vocal sound and cadence, but of course, it's younger and more fast-paced, which makes this Harkonnen even more terrifying.
The decision to so closely echo Skarsgård's voice was not something that he revealed before sharing scenes with the star of "The Avengers." As Butler recalled during an interview with ComicBook.com, Skarsgård eventually asked him how he was able to imitate his voice so accurately. Butler explained, "I listened to a ton of him talking, and I have an amazing dialect coach named Tim Monich."
So how did Skarsgård's react to Butler's hypnotizing performance? He laughed.
'It's like hearing an echo'
While appearing at the premiere of "Dune: Part Two" in New York City back in February (via Variety), Skarsgård said, "I laughed so much because it was so obvious that he really enjoyed being evil." But Skarsgård was also impressed. The actor responsible for some of the best monologues in the "Star Wars" series "Andor" described Butler's quasi-impersonation of his own voice: "It's like hearing an echo. It was very, very precise."
Thankfully, becoming the character that Butler described as a "psychopath swordmaster mixed with Mick Jagger" didn't require nearly as much Method dedication as his turn as Elvis Presley. The actor explained his change in approach to 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. [...] So 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."
Director Denis Villeneuve also appreciated that Butler held back on being more dedicated to staying in character. The filmmaker recalled, "When the camera was on, it was like you were possessed. When the camera was off, you were still maybe 25-30% Feyd. Just enough to still be present and focus but removed enough that you didn't kill anybody on set."
Yes, if there's one rule that every actor should follow during production, it's that they don't kill anyone on set, even if you're playing a depraved nightmare.
"Dune: Part Two" is now playing in theaters everywhere.