00:00Peter Gray from the AU Review. Hello, Austin Butler.
00:04Hello. How are you?
00:06I'm very well, thank you. How are you? Welcome back to our fine country.
00:09Oh, it's good to be back.
00:11The unofficial son I like to think of you as at this point.
00:14I like that.
00:17I will say the moment that we see Benny from Cathy's point of view, I mean, that is a
00:23movie star entrance. And I know that Jeff Nichols noted that when he met you,
00:29you had been cast as Elvis, but he saw you in a way that he wasn't expecting
00:33because you didn't look like Elvis. And he immediately wanted to cast you.
00:37Was there like a certain, I don't know, pressure knowing how much you made an impression on him?
00:45No, I don't think so. Pressure because of that. No, I don't think so. Because he didn't talk
00:55to me about that type of thing. I mean, we just started talking about the story and
01:00what interested both of us and that sort of thing. And, you know, I owe him a lot and Adam Stone,
01:07our amazing cinematographer for the way that they shot all that. They made me look much cooler than
01:11I am. No, I mean, the bike riding sequences, I love that, you know, obviously the wind is in
01:17your hair as much as like the rocks and dirt that like come at you. I imagine there's like
01:21kind of this beauty to it, but also probably this like visceral nature to those scenes. Like
01:28how was it to film those bike riding sequences? I imagine it's probably a lot more dangerous than we
01:33probably expect. Yeah, it, I mean, my biggest problem was I had to remind myself to not smile
01:43because I was enjoying myself so much. And it was an exhilarating feeling, you know,
01:50riding this giant pack of motorcycles and being up front with one of my heroes, Tom Hardy,
01:56and looking over at him and we're riding through a cornfield in Cincinnati. And that was, it was
02:01so special. So I just had to remind myself to keep a, keep a cool, serious look on my face.
02:08You had to remind yourself, like, be an actor in this moment.
02:11Yeah, just remind yourself of who you are. Yeah.
02:15And speaking of like Tom Hardy, like he is such a, he's such like a force on screen. And I've
02:22heard that he's actually, like a lot of people have this perception of him, but I mean, it seems
02:28like he kind of, he's a lot funnier than people, than people think. That's exactly what I said
02:34about him. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so your experience with him was like, did you go in with a certain
02:38mindset and he kind of changed your perception of him? He, yes.
02:43Well, I tried to, to sort of not have any expectations, you know, I've, yeah, I didn't
02:53know what his process would be. And, and he, he really, I think I lucked out as well, because our
03:00characters have such a love for each other. They're this brotherly bond. So before we even started
03:06shooting, Tom came, came over and we just, we hung out and told stories and bonded and, and he,
03:17you know, we were able to be vulnerable with each other and share some humanity. And,
03:22and so by the time that we were on set, we felt very close, you know, and like you said, I mean,
03:27he's one of the, one of the best sense of humor that I've ever met. He's, he's incredibly
03:36funny and a great storyteller in every way. And, and then also intense and strong and powerful and
03:43dynamic and has this volcanic energy inside of him. And it's, it's, it's an amazing combination.
03:49Yeah. No, it's funny that like, I feel like because I've seen so many interviews with him,
03:53where he's like playing with like puppies and stuff. I'm like, he doesn't seem like he's as
03:57intense as he is, but then he can actually fight. And yeah, he's a cool guy. And with like,
04:06has this, I mean, I don't know if you did have a perception of like motorcycle culture,
04:10but has this like changed the way that you think of that whole, that whole movement?
04:14Yeah, I, well, for one, it, it changed my understanding of, of the essence of a group
04:24of people who love to ride motorcycles, you know, it, how they, these, these clubs really started
04:30as just groups who love to race motorcycles and talk about bikes and, and then they evolve over
04:38time and, and change. And, but that, that was definitely something. The other thing is just
04:44the mentality and, and the, the sort of philosophy and spiritual aspect of riding motorcycles and
04:54these conversations that we get into, like Jeff Milburn, who most of the bikes in the film are
04:58his personal bikes. And all he does is talk about motorcycles and ride motorcycles all day long.
05:03And he was telling me the other day, he said, just, he and I went out for this long ride together
05:08after we were doing a press junket and we were like, let's get out of here. Let's, and so we
05:12got on bikes and we just left. And we rode around for a few hours. And at one point we pulled over
05:18and we're talking and he said, isn't it great that how free you feel? He's like, you're free.
05:24You're like, you don't have your phone. You don't have, nobody's telling you what to do.
05:28He said, the other thing is your life is in your hands. And, and that's, he said, you, you have such
05:34agency right now because you are the only one who is responsible for your life right now. And
05:41it's kind of an amazing thing. It kind of dawned on me that that's the, he put words to the feeling
05:46that I sometimes get when you're on a motorcycle and you get off and you feel more grounded or you
05:52feel more in touch with yourself in some way. And that was kind of a, so it's philosophies like
05:57that, that, you know, really affected me. Yeah, no, I like that. It sort of played into the whole
06:02thing of like the, like the wild one being mentioned in like, did that, did that emulate
06:07bike culture or did bike culture emulate the wild one? And I love that the film so sort of
06:13brings about a new version of like masculinity. And it's like this film is about masculinity.
06:18Brings about a new version of like masculinity. And it's like, this film shows how there can be
06:23that love between men without it being a sexual thing. As you said, like there's like this nice
06:29relationship between everybody. And I think that's one of the things I responded to the most about
06:34this film that had a lot more sweetness to it than I was expecting. So yeah. And just, I mean,
06:40as I said, your performance in this, when I saw you on screen for the first time, I was like,
06:44man, this guy is just like, we need, we need him on every single possible movie screen we can see.
06:50So congratulations. Thank you so much for saying that. No worries. And yeah, as I said, like
06:57always, always welcome to come back to this country anytime. I love it. I never want to leave.
07:03I mean, we can, we can, we can stop you if you want. Thank you. Thank you.
07:07Hey, thank you, Peter. Great stuff, man. Nice to see you.
07:11Cheers. See you on the next one.
07:12Cheers. See you later.
07:13Bye.
Comments