Two stories hit the front page of Variety on Friday, both of them centered on breakout actor Austin Butler and his career thus far … and they both made him sound like an egotistical nightmare.
Butler sounds like he’s had a really hard go of it since breaking into the entertainment industry. The poor dab had to “choose between going to the screen test for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ or saying yes to Quentin Tarantino,” according to an interview he did with the “Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast. Variety wrote up the interview, and the headline — which was essentially his quote — will probably make every single actor in Hollywood hate Butler without ever having met him.
Then, in an interview with Variety, Butler talked about how he broke a rib while filming “Masters of the Air,” but he “had to keep fighting,” as if he was an actual soldier, and not just playing dress-up as one. While Butler’s words don’t quite fall into the category of stolen valor, they do make him look like a bit of an egotistical nightmare.
No offense, but one of my friends broke two ribs at a System of a Down show and kept moshing until they finished the entirety of “Toxicity,” the album, not the song. It’s not that bad of an injury.
‘I Would Sooner Have Put My Hands In A Food Blender’: Christopher Eccleston Accuses Actress Of Heinous On-Set Behavior https://t.co/7nw4ah7iHF
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 24, 2024
Being an actor is not pain. Being an actor isn’t even difficult if you’re doing it on screen — stage is a whole other beast, and all stage actors deserve respect. But being a movie actor is one of the easiest and least worthwhile careers in the modern world, and a lot of successful actors know it.
While Butler’s PR team probably thinks these pieces on the front page of Variety are a good thing, there’s no way the heavy-hitters in Hollywood are going to see it that way. The headlines read like Butler is going to be difficult to work with, expensive, and probably pretty proud of himself.
Contrary to popular belief, the nice guys do tend to finish first in Hollywood. Other than one or two current A-listers (all of them trashy nouveau riche ones who will be replaced by someone younger in due course), most of the steadily successful artists in entertainment are nice people, who others enjoy working with. (RELATED: Actor Woody Harrelson Poses In RFK Jr. Hat, Libs Lose Their Minds)
Just like in all industries, it doesn’t matter how good your work is, or how popular you might be, no one will remember it. People remember how you behaved, and how you treated others. Someone might want to remind most of Gen Z, Gen A, and every politician ever, of this universal truth.