Austin Butler recalls first time seeing himself as villainous Feyd-Rautha while promoting highly anticipated sequel Dune: Part Two on talk show

Austin Butler said it was “wild” when he saw himself in makeup for the first time as his villainous Dune character on Wednesday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC.

The 32-year-old actor plays Feyd-Rautha in the highly anticipated sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two.

“The first time I saw myself in makeup, I was in the middle of Elvis’ press tour and we were in London and I was taking a break from doing the junkets,” Austin said.

“They took me to a hotel room and did that to me. I had been in a whole different world and I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about this. This is going to be wild.'” Once I wrapped my head around it and leaned into it, it became the most fun I’ve ever had,” he added.

Seth, 50, asked him if he stayed in character during filming, as he did for his 2022 biopic Elvis.

“You have to set some boundaries,” Austin said.

Seth told him there was a lot of excitement about Dune: Part Two, which will be released in theaters on Friday.

“It was so cool to travel the world and feel the excitement,” Austin said.

Austin said, “It was a dream come true” to be included in Dune 2.

“I would have done the catering for this movie,” Austin said. “I liked the first movie so much.”

Seth said he heard Austin did not audition for the film but had coffee with director Denis Villeneuve, 56. Austin said when he went into the meeting he didn’t know if he would get the part.

“I really didn’t know,” Austin said. ‘I didn’t know which way it would go. I didn’t know him and Elvis hadn’t come out yet. Baz (Luhrmann) had shown him a few scenes, stuff like that.’

Austin said he had “never been offered anything out of the blue and so I thought this probably wouldn’t go my way.”

The 32-year-old actor plays Feyd-Rautha in the highly anticipated sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two

“The first time I saw myself in makeup, I was in the middle of the Elvis press tour and we were in London and I was taking a break from doing the junkets,” Austin said.

“They took me to a hotel room and did that to me. I had been in a whole different world and I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about this. This is going to be wild.'” Once I wrapped my head around it and leaned into it, it became the most fun I’ve ever had,” he added.

“I would have done the catering for this movie,” Austin said. ‘I liked the first film so much’

Austin said they had a great meeting.

“And we quickly found that we enjoyed working in a similar way,” Austin said. “Then he said, ‘I’m going to go home and dream about this meeting.’ And then he went home and dreamed about it and then he called me and said, ‘Are you coming with me to Arrakis?’

Austin said Denis called him about three days later.

Austin said he remembers going to see Star Wars before he could read with his uncle. When they re-released the 1970s films in the 1990s, he said he watched them and still felt moved.

“The same feeling I got as a kid and watching this is the first time I felt watching Dune,” Austin said. ‘It’s really extraordinary. You have to see it on IMAX.”

Austin has been promoting Dune 2 ahead of its release and spoke about meeting English rocker Sting, 72, at the New York City premiere earlier this week.

Sting played Austin’s character Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in director David Lynch’s 1984 film Dune.

Austin is promoting Dune 2 ahead of its release and spoke earlier this week about meeting English rocker Sting, 72, at the New York City premiere on Sunday

‘It was so surreal. …I was stunned,” Austin said of his encounter with Sting.

Austin said Sting came up afterward and was “so nice and just warm.”

“He said he still has the codpiece from the original and he’s going to dry clean it so I can wear it,” Austin said.

The late science fiction author Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time and is the source for the film adaptations.