Austin Butler Talks the Epic Stunts in Caught Stealing, Dune & More | Stunt School | Men's Health

I get beaten up by these two Russians in this film. This one, Nikita, he's got so much power. So he starts really laying into me and kicking me hard. But then he had this idea of headbutting me in the side, and he did it so hard it almost cracked my rib with his head. Hey, I'm Austin. Today we're gonna talk about some of the stunts that I've had the opportunity to do in my career. This is Stunt School. First of all, when I think about stunts, I was such a massive Jackie Chan fan when I was a kid. Watching Jackie Chan films as a kid was my favorite thing to do, and they always had the behind-the-scenes of the stunts. That was the first time I ever saw behind-the-scenes of a movie, so really, I feel very privileged for the amazing stunt performers and teams that I've gotten to work with in my life. So thank you, Jackie Chan. So this is Caught Stealing. Caught Stealing is the movie with Darren Aronofsky, who I've been wanting to work with for many, many years. He put me through the ringer on this film. It's a lot of running away from people chasing me with cars and getting beaten up repeatedly. I get beaten up by these two Russians in this film. This one, Nikita, who's a short king, he's got so much power. When he was kicking me, he didn't want to kick me very hard. He felt bad, and I kept telling him, just kick me, just kick me harder. And there was the thing where I'd watch it back, and I was like, it doesn't look real. So he starts really laying into me and kicking me hard. But then he had this idea of head-butting me in the side, like a little ram or something. And he did it so hard, it almost cracked my rib with his head. I was very impressed. There's another scene where they throw me under this table, Bad Bunny and the Russians. They had made a soft table that was made of some sort of foam. Every time they would hit me on it, the whole thing would bow. And I'm not wearing anything, so you can't hide pads anywhere. And Darren was like, it looks fake. And so they said, just bring in the wooden table, so they bring in the wooden table, and then they just start slamming me onto this wooden table wearing nothing. It's little things like that, you know, that with the camera angles you can't use a stunt double. I did have an amazing stunt double, but for the most part, I'll just say, yeah, let's go. I'll just deal with the bruises later. Also, I feel ridiculous talking about any of this when you have Tom Cruise doing what he does. I'm talking about being slammed into a table. Tom Cruise is hanging off of an airplane. He's breaking his ankle, jumping between two buildings. He's the peak. I'm so silly, like, what am I doing? I'm talking about being slammed into a table, and Tom Cruise jumped off a cliff. I rode a horse once. This is Dune Part 2. We can talk about the gladiator fight, which was my first thing that I filmed in the movie, and it was also the first week of shooting the entire movie. It was in the dead of summer in Budapest, swelteringly hot outside, over 100 degrees, and I'm in this bald cap just baking. What I was wearing was like a, it's almost like a wetsuit material. It doesn't breathe at all, so I was very warm, but everybody was. Roger and I had stunt coordinator Roger Ewing. We started working together in L.A. many months before we started shooting. He's incredible, and he's the amazing performer as well that I'm fighting. We did months of prep for that. We filmed it for about a week, I would say, in the heat. I knew that I was going to be fighting a lot with knives, and Roger's amazing with Eskrima and with Kali. I actually trained in Kali when I was a little kid. Kali and Eskrima are these Filipino stick fighting and knife fighting, and my dad got into it, so we did that together. So we had sticks, and we would do all the stick fighting together. It's brutal. It's an amazing martial art. I'm so impressed with what they're able to do. I'm such a novice in comparison. That was a fun one. Then we have the finale fight, the fight between Timmy and me. The first day that he and I met, we immediately went into training together for that. It's a great way to bond with somebody when you're trying to not poke their eye out with a knife, and it has this intensified energy to it. We had a great time. What was special about that, you train for a long time, and then suddenly now here you are, and we were surrounded by the entire cast. So to have Christopher Walken and Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, Florence and Zendaya, and I could go on and on, but everybody is there, Rebecca Ferguson, who I just adore. We have this amazing group of people, and when all of their attention is on you, it really intensifies it, because now you really don't want to mess up. We've worked on it so many times. So then it's just, you just get more and more precise. You feel like you get to a point where you own it more and more, I guess. This is Bike Riders. Bike Riders was so much fun. We got to do fights. I got the ---- kicked out of me, but most of all it was just riding motorcycles with my friends. And we were on old bikes. I'd never ridden around on old bikes before. It was just so fun. I had a blast, and we weren't wearing helmets in the film, which is exhilarating, but kids wear a helmet. It's much safer. My dad had a motorcycle all my life, and I dropped it the first time. I felt so bad. I broke his mirror off. In the beginning, it's very hard to go slow, because you'll either stall the bike or you'll fall. So that was a big thing with my dad, was trying to not break his bike. This is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a dream come true in so many ways. I was able to do a lot of different fun things in this movie. One thing was riding horses. I rode a lot of horses for that. I grew up riding horses in Arizona, where my grandfather lives. My grandpa was a cowboy. He roped cattle, and he and his brother, and they taught me by just sticking me on a horse, and they'd slap it on the ass and just let it go and tell me to hold on. And then for Once Upon a Time, the day that Quentin cast me, he said, I've got this idea, you take off on this horse, and what you can't tell is that I'm riding on concrete for about half of the take, and he wanted to do it all in one take, and so he's got the camera on a camera car, and then I take off, and horses don't have a lot of traction on concrete, so the stunt team very lovingly were saying, Austin, just take it 50% on this one. Don't go too fast. But then Quentin showed up, and he's got a cowboy hat on, and I've got a cowboy hat on. As soon as he called action, I kicked up that horse, and we went as fast as we possibly could, and he was effusive and excited, so that was cool. Seeing a smile on his face made me happy. And Bob Richardson, our DP, he came out, and he goes, holy ----, you can ride! And it felt good. Then the fight. So we had an amazing stunt team, Zoe Bell and Rob Alonzo and Braxton McAllister, who has been my stunt partner in crime for three films now, and he took that pitbull to the groin for me. That was Braxton. It was initially going to be a lot longer of a fight, but when we got there, he said, you know what, it doesn't make sense for you to be a good fighter. Brad's character is like a special forces guy, so if he can't take you out quickly, then it doesn't feel right. When I think of being in a fight with Tyler Durden, that's a dream come true. I come in the house and I'm holding a gun on Brad. Because of the camera angle, they wanted me to hold the gun with my left hand. And then the dog, he's supposed to jump off the chair and grab my left arm, and I think I was wearing a sweatshirt. But underneath it, they wrapped my arm in leather so this 80-pound pitbull can grab onto my arm and rip at me. In rehearsals, he got me in such a way that he tore my rotator cuff. He was very strong. So then we did it on the right arm on the day. I realized I need to hold on tight, otherwise he's going to rip my arm off. That was that. That was fun. All right, so that was a little bit of the behind the scenes of some of the stunts that I've done in my career. Thank you for watching.