Austin Butler Names Pair Of Actors Who Inspired His Sinister Dune Performance

Austin Butler named Gary Oldman and Heath Ledger as the two actors who inspired him for his role as Feyd-Rautha in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.

“I’ve always been inspired by Gary Oldman in many of his roles. Léon: The Professional, or True Romance, or The Fifth Element,” Austin said in an interview with NME.

“And you know, we’ve talked about Heath Ledger a lot, the sense of play that he had. And like I say, it’s not the specific things, but it’s more general inspiration.”

The actor recently revealed to Jimmy Fallon that he met Sting –– who portrayed Feyd-Rautha in David Lynch’s 1984 Dune adaptation –– at the New York City premiere for Dune: Part Two last month.

“It was so surreal. My mind was blown. He’s the best,” he said.

“He came up afterward, and he was so, so lovely and just debonair. I asked him about [the original Dune], and he said he still has the codpiece from the original [Dune]; he said he’s going to dry clean it and let me wear it if I want to.”

Austin, who portrays the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (played by Stellan Skarsgård), is a menacing character who wears a bald, eyebrow-free look with black teeth in the film.

He explained how he got into his character to The Tonight Show host.

“The thing with a villainous character — I’d never played a character quite like him, and I didn’t want to judge him, so it was a lot of imagining what his childhood was like,” Austin said.

Dune: Part Two has soared to earning over $200 million at the global box office, doing so less than a week after it hit cinemas.