Austin Butler has had roles in some impressive movies over the course of his acting career, but he also missed out on auditioning for Top Gun: Maverick in favor of working with Quentin Tarantino. Top Gun: Maverick would have seen Butler as a military pilot training for a dangerous mission under Tom Cruise’s Maverick. Butler was originally in the running for a prominent role in the movie, but he ended up turning it down for a smaller part in one of Quentin Tarantino’s films instead.
Butler has been acting since he was a child, as he appeared in several kid’s television shows like Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. Despite his success early in life, though, he wasn’t guaranteed to be a star as an adult. He often had to make crucial choices to help his career along, and one of those proved to be passing up a role in Top Gun: Maverick. Luckily, Butler’s role in Tarantino’s movie changed his career for the better and led to a string of massive successes.
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Austin Butler Chose Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Over Top Gun 2 Because Of Tarantino
Butler had to pick one or the other, and Tarantino won out
In an interview for the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast via People, Butler said that he had to choose between going to a screen test for Top Gun: Maverick and working on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and that he chose the latter. Butler turned down the audition because he said it was always his dream to work with director Quentin Tarantino, and when the opportunity finally came up, he couldn’t pass it by. He had also met Tarantino before, and Butler ended up securing a small but prominent role as Tex Watson, one of the Manson cultists who tried to kill Brad Pitt’s character.
Austin Butler Made The Right Choice Choosing Tarantino Over Top Gun: Maverick
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood jumpstarted Butler’s career
While Top Gun: Maverick would have been an excellent step in Butler’s career, missing out on the audition wasn’t as bad as it seemed. In an interview with Variety, the casting director for Top Gun: Maverick said that Butler would have auditioned for the role of Rooster, which ended up going to Miles Teller, and that he likely wouldn’t have gotten the part due to his young age. Meanwhile, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood turned into a major breakout role for him. After working with Tarantino, a whole new wealth of opportunities presented themselves.
His role as Tex helped give him more popularity, which then made it easier to cast him in the titular role for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, his first major leading role that skyrocketed him to fame. His time as Elvis then caught the attention of Denis Villeneuve, who wanted a “rockstar” to play Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune: Part Two, according to an interview with RadioTimes. If he had chosen Top Gun: Maverick instead, which still made over $1.4 billion without him (per Box Office Mojo), Butler likely would have missed out on joining Dune: Part Two.
Austin Butler’s Recent Prominent Projects | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood | Tex Watson | 2019 |
Elvis | Elvis Presley | 2022 |
Dune: Part Two | Feyd-Rautha | 2024 |
Masters of the Air | Buck Cleven | 2024 |
Austin Butler Eventually Got To Play A Top Gun-Style Character In 2024
Masters of the Air gave Butler his own pilot role
Though he missed out on Top Gun: Maverick, Butler still got a chance to play a military pilot years after he passed on the audition. Butler starred as Major Buck Cleven in Masters of the Air, Apple TV+’s World War II historical drama series, in 2024. While they may have been set in very different eras, Butler’s role as Buck still let him don aviators and sit in a cockpit. His role in Masters of the Air also gives a small glimpse into how Butler could have played the young, cocky, hotshot Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick, though with a much more dramatic tone.
There’s also no telling what kind of an impact Top Gun: Maverick could have had on Butler’s career. Rooster and Tex Watson were very different roles, and since he likely wouldn’t have had the same opportunities as he did from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his next projects could have been very different. He likely wouldn’t have landed a spot in Masters of the Air, as it would have drawn too many comparisons to Rooster. Given the stunning work Austin Butler has done since 2019, it’s safe to say that missing out on Top Gun: Maverick was far from a major mistake.
Sources: People, Variety, RadioTimes, Box Office Mojo
Top Gun: Maverick
PG-13ActionDramaWarTop Gun: Maverick is the sequel to the 1986 original film starring Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a top-tier pilot in the Navy. Thirty years after the original film’s events, Maverick is asked to head up a section of the TOP GUN program to embark on a dangerous mission. Things become personal when the program includes the son of Maverick’s late friend, forcing him to confront his past.
- Director
-
Joseph Kosinski
- Release Date
-
May 27, 2022
- Cast
-
Tom Cruise
, Miles Teller
, Jennifer Connelly
, Val Kilmer
, Jay Ellis
, Jon Hamm
, Bashir Salahuddin
, Charles Parnell
, Lewis Pullman
, Glen Powell
, Monica Barbaro
, Ed Harris - Runtime
-
130 Minutes
- Budget
-
$170 Million
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
RComedyDramaOnce Upon A Time in Hollywood, which takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton, the former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth. Both struggle to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore, but Rick soon realizes he’s the next-door neighbor of the infamous Sharon Tate.
- Director
-
Quentin Tarantino
- Release Date
-
July 26, 2019
- Cast
-
Tim Roth
, Margot Robbie
, Mike Moh
, Timothy Olyphant
, Al Pacino
, Kurt Russell
, Leonardo DiCaprio
, Dakota Fanning
, James Marsden
, Brad Pitt
, Luke Perry
, Bruce Dern
, Scoot McNairy
, Michael Madsen
, Margaret Qualley
, Emile Hirsch - Runtime
-
159 minutes
- Budget
-
$90 million
