Austin Butler’s nine favourite movies of all time
It’s been impossible to ignore the rise of Austin Butler over the last few years.
After appearing as part of one of the heralded Manson Family in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Butler broke out in a big way when he led Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy biopic Elvis. Since taking on the ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’, a little too vocally, Butler’s stock has only gotten more valuable, to the point where he finds himself as one of the most in-demand actors in the entire world.
A rising star of his nature is bound to attract attention from everyone involved in the movie business. That includes Letterboxd, who cornered the handsome star with their usual ‘Four Favourites’ question. Rather than flap about like some of his contemporaries, Butler had a plan on how to deal with the dreaded serve.
He narrowed the approach by naming four movies that served as inspiration during the making of Caught Stealing, his recent action-comedy outing with director Darren Aronofsky. He described Martin Scorsese’s After Hours as “a clear inspiration and a wonderful, wonderful film”. Griffin Dune, who plays lead character Paul Hackett in the movie, also has a small role in Caught Stealing, also named Paul, which Butler highlighted as a lovely round-tripper.
“It’s one of my favourite films,” Butler said of Blow Out. He revealed that he and co-star Zoë Kravitz went to see the Brian De Palma thriller together as preparation for their next job. The movie stars John Travolta as a sound technician who, while out recording for a job, is caught witnessing something he shouldn’t have. The actor also shared a fondness for the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, which he described as a “wild situation with a lot of characters”.
For his final pick, Butler chose Frantic, a 1988 thriller directed by the controversial Roman Polanski, with a bunch of famous names attached, and yet it isn’t as well-known as you’d expect. Harrison Ford stars as an American doctor whose wife is kidnapped while they’re visiting Paris, and finds himself in a world he does not understand, with time running out to save the woman he loves. Butler said that it “taught me so much about what movies can do”.
They might not be his ‘favourite’ films in a general sense, but it’s clear that Butler has an appreciation for all he named. Besides, if you want his actual ‘favourites’, you should check out another interview he did with A-Frame. His list of five includes: Elia Kazan’s East of Eden, an adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel starring James Dean; Magnolia, the patchwork epic from Paul Thomas Anderson; Quentin Tarantino’s axis-shifting sophomore effort Pulp Fiction; another Scorsese film, Raging Bull and finally, John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands’ greatest collaboration, A Woman Under the Influence.
Butler’s nine favourite movies are so diverse, it’s hard to box him into any meaningful conclusion from these picks. One thing we can say, though, is that he has great taste and is game for most things intense. Sorry, that’s not the cutting insight you’re used to, but we did our best.
Austin Butler’s all-time nine movies:
- After Hours (Martin Scorsese, 1985)
- Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981)
- The Big Lebowski (Ethan and Joel Coen, 1998)
- Frantic (Roman Polanski, 1988)
- East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955)
- Magnolia (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999)
- Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
- A Woman Under the Influence (John Cassavetes, 1974)
