Austin Butler frequently embodies a distinct persona whenever he appears on screen.
For instance, as Elvis in , he immersed himself so completely that, even off-camera, he seemed unable to shed Presley’s deep Southern accent. In , he adopted a Nordic accent and a psychopathic demeanor to portray the Harkonnen scion Feyd-Rautha. His role in saw him as an enigmatic, elusive greaser with almost legendary qualities. Elsewhere, his roles have included (Eddington) and a member of the Manson family ().
This makes it particularly noteworthy that in ‘s 90s-set Caught Stealing, an adaptation of Charlie Huston’s novel, Butler takes on the role of Hank Thompson, an essentially ordinary individual. This portrayal perhaps offers the strongest evidence yet of his stardom.
Hank is a former baseball player who now tends bar in a Lower East Side establishment. He dates Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), a fiery EMT, and drinks excessively to dull the pain of a past accident. Yet, for the most part, he’s a likable, quintessential American guy. He frequently calls his mother and even shows kindness to the homeless person on his block.
It’s therefore unfortunate that Hank’s world spirals into chaos after he agrees to look after Bud, a cat belonging to his Brit-punk neighbor Russ (), who is involved in highly dangerous affairs. When Russ departs to visit his ailing father, angry gangsters from across the city come searching for him, and it’s Hank they ultimately find.
Throughout the film, Butler is tasked with maintaining a composed presence as pandemonium and violence erupt around him. He embodies the everyday man simply trying to live his life, unexpectedly caught in a perilous situation, now at the mercy of volatile Eastern Europeans, Hasidic mobsters, and a sexually brandishing a pistol. In one scene, the rapper, also known as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, flamboyantly menaces a barely clothed Butler.
Despite being surrounded by such eccentric characters, Butler almost invariably remains the most compelling figure on screen. Even in these dire circumstances, he imbues Hank with an effortless charm, the kind of winning demeanor one might expect from a Californian with innate athletic talent. He is, above all, an amiable individual, even while grappling with unresolved emotional trauma and a host of fresh injuries.
Caught Stealing marks the first occasion in his adult acting career where Butler appears genuinely at ease leveraging his inherent attractiveness and magnetism on screen.
In his early career, Butler was frequently cast in conventional leading man roles due to his classic good looks. For instance, on , he portrayed Sebastian Kydd, a precursor to Mr. Big for a youthful Carrie Bradshaw (). His primary function was to smolder while the leading lady yearned for him.
As Butler gained recognition as a “serious actor,” he seemed driven, above all, to transform himself, deliberately obscuring both his personal attractiveness and his real-life persona by fully immersing himself in his characters. This isn’t to say he made himself unappealing—Elvis, after all, was an original teen idol—but rather that he sought to submerge his own identity. Butler has recently acknowledged his efforts to shed his Method acting tendencies. He that Laura Dern, whom he met by chance, is assisting him in learning how to detach himself from his more demanding roles. “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,” he remarked. “It can be therapeutic, in a way.”
This more relaxed, “chiller” Butler is prominently featured in Caught Stealing. While an intensity still underlies his performance—he is, after all, repeatedly bloodied and bruised throughout the action—there’s also an eagerness to engage the audience rather than keep them at a distance. He aims for viewers to align with him and Hank, and consequently, he’s more charming than ever. Even his intoxication feels like a natural extension of his . The most exceptional movie stars possess a blend of raw talent and an indefinable sparkle. Butler has now conclusively demonstrated his technical prowess as an actor, capable of vanishing into roles like Elvis or Feyd-Rautha. Caught Stealing argues that he can be equally captivating when he isn’t concealing his inherent Austin Butler qualities. This bodes well for his enduring presence in Hollywood. He truly possesses a versatile range.