In advance of the premiere of Dune: Part Two on March 1, Austin Butler is providing further insight into the character he plays in the film.
The Oscar-nominated actor previewed his next part by using the phrases “ugly and bald” at a screening and discussion that took place on Wednesday at the 92nd Street Y in New York City for his new Apple TV+ miniseries Masters of the Air with the intention of promoting the series.
Butler, who is 32 years old, portrays the nefarious and violent Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. Feyd-Rautha is the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who is portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård.
A number of early views of the character in the sequel to the adaptation of Frank Herbert’s book from 1965 that Timothée Chalamet starred in have shown that the actor is, in fact, hairless and almost unrecognizable.
During an interview that Josh Horowitz conducted for a live recording of his Happy Sad Confused podcast at the 92nd Street Y event, Butler said that he took inspiration from “animals, like a snake and a shark” as he was developing his act.
According to him, as part of his study and preparation, he “looked back at certain cultures through time that have been bred in brutality.” Because that is the thing that I was trying to uncover — I didn’t want to portray a caricature of him, but what does a person become when they are born into a harsh environment? To ensure their own survival, they are forced to resort to violent means. Who does that individual end up becoming?
The remark that Horowitz made was, “He appears to be a sweetheart.”
According to Butler, “Yeah.” “He is not only bald but also ugly.” The Elvis actor also said that he had watched Dune: Part Two, although he did not provide any other information about the film.
After the events of the previous installment, Dune: Part Two continues up where the first installment left off. In the previous installment, Chalamet’s character, Paul Atreides, was healing from the killing of his father and the disintegration of his royal family at the hands of the Harkonnens during his relocation to the desert planet Arrakis. In Dune: Part Two, the story follows Paul on his “mythic journey… while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family,” as stated in the official summary of the production.
As Chani, the young Fremen lady who leads Paul across the desert, Zendaya is the actress who plays the character that she previously played. The conclusion of the synopsis states that “[Paul] endeavors to prevent a terrible future that only he can foresee,” despite the fact that he is forced to choose between the love of his life and the destiny of the known universe.
Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, and Tim Blake Nelson are all featured in the upcoming film with Butler. Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem are all scheduled to make their comebacks in the next season.
Not for the first time, the cruel Feyd has been introduced to the big screen. This is not the first time. Sting portrayed the role of the antagonist in the film version of Herbert’s story that was directed by David Lynch and released in 1984. Kyle MacLachlan in the role of Paul was the other actor in the film.
The actor also said on Wednesday that there was a time in his career when he had to “choose between going to the screen test for Top Gun: Maverick or saying yes to Quentin Tarantino, who directed the actor in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.”
According to Variety, Denise Chamian, the casting director for the sequel to Top Gun, which will be helmed by Tom Cruise, said that the character of Rooster was one that Butler was considered for, but Miles Teller eventually won the job.
Members of the 100th Bomb Group who served during World War II are portrayed in Masters of the Air by actors such as Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, and Barry Keoghan, among, among others.
According to Butler, who plays the role of Major Gale “Buck” Cleven in the series, training at boot camp with the group before to shooting, not only helped them connect with one another, but it also made it “so it was just even across the board.” There was this sense of equality among all of the people, which is such a welcome change and a wonderful way to get things started.
Beginning this coming Friday, episodes of Masters of the Air will be available to watch on Apple TV+.