Austin Butler Names The 2 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.