Working with acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky has always been hand-in-hand with the start of Austin Butler’s acting career, and a chance to collaborate emerged with Caught Stealing, Aronofsky’s latest crime film.
“The first thing I was ever cast in was a student film,” Butler says. “I asked the director of that movie who his favorite director was, and he said Darren Aronofsky. Since I was a child, I had this thing in my head where I wanted to work with Darren.”
In Caught Stealing, Butler plays the central role of Hank Thompson, a former baseball player now working as a bartender in downtown New York City. When his neighbor Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank unexpectedly finds himself embroiled in a gang war between the city’s most dangerous criminals.
Watch Austin get in on the action in this featurette:
On set, Butler was completely in his element, enjoying the atmosphere Aronosfly created while filming. “It’s a pressure cooker, and I enjoyed that,” he says. “He demands a lot of everybody, including himself, but that intensity pulls out the best in every department. It’s a pleasure to work hard when the results justify the work.”
Director Aronofsky could say the same working with Butler, admiring his skill as an actor. “It’s the first time I’ve seen him show up as Austin,” says Aronofsky. “He often plays these incredible characters that he disappears in and brings them to life. But there’s so much of him in this character.”
Charlie Huston, who adapted his novel Caught Stealing as their own screenplay, feels that Butler did justice to a character that is close to his heart. “When we meet Hank, he’s at a crossroads in his life,” says Huston. “When he was younger, he thought he was going to be a superstar baseball player. He had the brightest possible future, and through his own carelessness, it went completely awry. Faced with that, he chose to run away rather than confront it and try to grow from it. He’s been running for 12 or 13 years when we meet him.”
Butler talks about his character’s motivation, and how he keeps going despite the chaos. “He’s moved to New York and become a bartender. He’s numbing himself, just drinking and living a bare minimum life,” says Butler. “And then he’s thrown into this wild set of circumstances that create a life-or-death struggle. It’s a defibrillator that shocks him back into life—to take the responsibility to protect the people he cares about and not die himself.”
Dive into the chaos of Caught Stealing, opening in Philippine cinemas on September 10
