Austin Butler Credits Tom Hardy and Laura Dern for Helping Him Pull Away From Method Acting
“For a long time, I felt that it had to be a tortured process and I would come out the other side broken,” said Buter actor, who famously went method for Elvis.
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Oscar nominee Austin Butler continues to take on darker roles, but he’s getting advice from top actors, who are helping him see he can “come out the other side.”
In a new Men’s Health cover story to promote his new thrillerm Caught Stealing, directed by Darren Aronofsky, Butler opens up about what he’s learned from other actors that’s helped him to pull away from method acting.
After the actor finished shooting 2022’s Elvis, he was rushed to te hospital due to his body “shutting down.”
“For a long time, I felt that it had to be a tortured process and I would come out the other side broken,” Butler said. “Rather than just putting parts of yourself away and trying to pretend that they don’t exist, it’s like going into the gross bits of yourself — going into the bits that you don’t want to look at — and finding a way of integrating that into the whole.”
To unwind from his busy schedule during shooting, he turns to working out and taking a cold shower, both of which help him fall asleep easier. This routine was something he observed from Tom Hardy, his co-star in 2023’s The Bikeriders. He recalled, “After shooting all night, Hardy would go home, put on a weighted vest and do 1,000 box jumps.” Butler added he also needs to step outside and get some sun: “I’m just trying to find little things like that. Sometimes it’s the mundane little things.”
White noted, “I think Austin is at this point in his life where doing the best work he can is very important, and I think it always will be, but I think he’s searching for some stability in life as well.”
“She’s helping me more and more to see that you can come out the other side, and maybe bits of you have healed, and synthesized, and metabolized. It can be therapeutic, in a way,” Butler said.