Austin Butler on Almost Quitting Acting & Denzel Washington’s Elvis Recommendation | Absolute Radio

Denzel Washington called Baz Luhrmann and vouched for me, so I'd say yeah that. Austin, you mimicking Matt Smith. So good, his accent. Do you guys have a favourite British phrase or like saying that you've picked up from Matt? I like that you guys always say, you're right. You're right, you're right, you're right, innit. Yeah, innit's good. Innit, that one. The British is coming out, very convincing. Yeah, lovely jubbly. That was good. I was also here for all of the Yiddish in the film. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Meshuggana. I've got to fly back to London. I need you to take care of my cat. I like cats. I like dogs. Hey, is Russ home? Who are you? What's the big man? This film taught me one very important lesson. Tell me more. Which is you never know what you're gonna find in the cat poo. Yes. This is what they try to teach you in school and you just gotta, you gotta listen to them. They failed, yeah. This film is what taught me. Who would make the better cat parent out of the two of you? I think you. You think me? Yeah. Yeah, me. You also think you. I think me. Great. What qualities does Austin have that would make him the better cat parent? You know, things like responsibility and I feel like you're very calm. I just feel like you'd be better at it. I don't know why. Why do you think you'd be better at it? I could see like really taking the time with the cat to like... Wow, the shade. No, no, no. I could see you doing the same. Like I genuinely think we would both be good cat parents. Should we co-parent a cat? We could co-parent a cat if you want to. Yeah, because you also spent a lot of time with cats as Catwoman. Don't try and pivot that to that. When in doubt, bring up Catwoman. You're both cat whisperers, but this is just the dreamiest duo. Sticking with the title of the film, is there a quality that you'd like to steal from each other? You're really good at eye contact. Wow. You are very good at eye contact. You want to steal that from me? I mean, okay, you made it sound like I want to take it away from you. No, no, no, not take it away. Oh yeah, I'd like to be better at it. Okay. Yeah. There's so many things that I would take from Zoe. Her ability to write. She's a really great writer. Whether that's writing a movie or writing music or she's just very creative. Yeah, it's very, very impressive. I want to see you in Zoe's next film. I'm just saying. I would love to. I'm writing him a comedy. There you go. I would watch that. Oh my God, I'm so down. To put it politely, Matt Smith's character is the neighbor from hell in this. Yeah, yeah, you don't want him as your neighbor. Absolutely not. Out of all of the actors that you've worked with, who would make the dreamiest neighbor? The dreamiest neighbor? Reese would be a good neighbor. Reese Witherspoon? Yeah, she's good at hosting things and she'd bring over baskets of things. She would definitely be stocked with all the things you want from your neighbor, like sugar and eggs. Totally. It's nice to have a neighbor like that. I like that a lot as an answer, actually. Laura Dern would be really great. Oh my God, yeah, great. She'd be wonderful. Great. They actually live near each other. Oh, that'd be good. We could live near them. We should have a compound. We're going to get a cat. We're going to move in between. We can co-parent a cat and have a compound with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. Yeah. You're moving in. I'm joining. I love it. This is a good compound. Yeah, it's a vibe. What the f*** did you get me into? Your characters' lives completely change all because of one simple favor. And I was wondering, has another actor or a director ever done you guys a favor that you'll always be really grateful for in your careers? Yeah, hiring me. Thanks, Darren. Thank you. Cool favor, man. I'll get you back. Yeah, Denzel Washington called Baz Luhrmann and vouched for me. So I'd say, yeah, that. But that wasn't a favor. I feel like he did it on his own and he wanted to do it. He did it on his own and we never even talked about it. Yeah. Yeah, it was just like, it was a really kind thing to do. My man. I literally feel like every time someone hires me, it's like a f***ing favor. Thank you so much. Thank you. Oh my God. Thank you. Like an elf. Yes. I don't suppose you're Jewish, are you? Eat, skinny boy. Eat what you're going to upset her. Austin, all your characters ever wanted to do is to become a professional baseball player. To become a bartender. And I imagine you guys are living out your dreams as actors. When was the moment you guys realized you wanted to do this as a job? Was there ever like a turning point? It was more that it was time to leave high school. And it was the only thing that I knew how to do. You're like, hire me. And I'm like, someone do me a favor. Can you do me a favor and just pay me to be on movies? I just didn't know what else to do. It's just so, it's like, it's the only thing I ever really understood or felt like I had some kind of grasp on. You're great at it. For me, I was a kid as an extra, you know? I sort of stumbled into that. And then it was like, yeah, I didn't really want to go to school. And so it just kind of started that way. I didn't realize it was a job. I didn't realize you could actually do it. But I just love movies and I love to play and pretend. So it kind of worked out. I mean, seeing your character go through that struggle of seeing his dream almost like come crashing down broke my heart. Do you have any advice for people who may be struggling and wanting to give up on their dream? Yeah, I mean, I feel like it really only takes one moment to change your life. And so I feel like sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed by everything that's maybe not happening. But remembering that it really just takes turning left instead of right, you know, sometimes. And your life can change so quickly. So you just kind of gotta... Yeah, have faith. Yeah, I mean, I've had moments where I've talked about this a lot, but where I've really thought about quitting acting. And I'm so grateful I didn't. I think that it's just a matter of if you love something, just keep doing it for the love of doing it, not for the outcome. If you love the process of something, then you're winning. My mom always says too, she says rejection is protection. And sometimes you don't get a job, you don't get something you want. And you think, you know, but it's always leading you towards or you're learning something in the process that's going to change something later. It's just, you gotta trust me. Yeah, yeah. Rejection is protection. I love that. Well, I'm very happy that you guys are here doing it. Thank you so much and huge congratulations on the film. Thank you so much.