Dune: Part Two actor Austin Butler has revealed the surprising story behind getting the role of Feyd-Rautha. Dune: Part One, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve and starred a huge ensemble cast that included Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Oscar Isaac, was well-received by critics and audiences alike, eventually winning 6 Oscars. That, combined with the fact that it only adapted the first half of the classic Frank Herbert sci-fi novel, almost guaranteed that it would get a sequel. The follow-up went into production earlier this year, adding multiple new members to the cast including Butler as Feyd-Rautha, Florence Pugh as Princess Irulan Corrino, and Christopher Walken as Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV.
On the latest episode of Happy Sad Confused, host Josh Horowitz sat down with Butler for a wide-ranging conversation that covered topics including his lead role in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, which is generating Oscar buzz. The conversation eventually turned to his upcoming Dune: Part Two role, and he revealed that he didn't even have to audition to get the role. After having lunch with Villeneuve in Los Angeles and discussing the film, the director told the actor that "I’m going to dream on this," before directly offering him the part a week later. Read Butler's full quote below:
Miraculously, no [I didn’t have to audition.] Denis was in town, I was in LA at the time, and Denis just asked me for coffee. We really hit it off and we just talked a lot about how we liked to work.
We talked about the part and how I would approach it and then he said, “You know, I’m going to dream on this.” And then he called me a week later and he said, “I would like you to join me on Arrakis.”
Why Austin Butler is Perfect Casting for Feyd-Rautha in Dune 2
Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is a massively important character in the Dune universe. The character, who was played by Sting in the original David Lynch film adaptation from 1984, is the nephew of Stellan Skarsgård's character, the wicked Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. Feyd-Rautha is a ruthless and skilled fighter, and because he is the heir of House Harkonnen, he is a dark mirror of Chalamet's lead character Paul Atreides. This allows audiences to examine how the young hero's path would look if he had chosen the acquisition of power above all other priorities.
Butler has a wealth of experience in addition to his recent role in Elvis, but that performance can also provide a road map to why the actor would be able to bring the iconic character Feyd-Rautha to life. For one thing, it showed how fully Butler is willing to commit to the physicality of a performance, as he pushed himself to the limit in order to convey the toll Elvis' life took on his body. Physicality is important to any action role, but Feyd-Rautha is a character who has made fighting a central part of his being, which requires a certain amount of confidence and longtime training that can't be faked.
Elvis also allowed Butler the chance to play the role of a basically good person who was seduced by fame and fortune. In Dune: Part Two, he can strip away that goodness and push that character to the absolute limit. Feyd-Rautha will also need to be able to hold his own against his older brother Glossu Rabban (Dave Bautista), a much more physically imposing presence, so Butler's level of commitment will certainly do a lot of the work making them viable opponents.
Source: Happy Sad Confused
