'That Was The Tricky Part': Austin Butler Had To Balance The Bikeriders And Dune: Part Two

Austin Butler had to juggle his commitments on 'The Bikeriders' and 'Dune: Part Two'.

The 32-year-old star plays Benny in the new film about about a Chicago motorcycle club and explained that he had to work on the project while also starring in the contrasting role of antagonist Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi sequel.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Austin said: "That was the tricky part to figure out. I knew that I was going to do both films before I started 'Dune', but I had to figure out how to front-load the prep on 'Bikeriders' and start training on a motorcycle.

"So I was getting used to those old motorcycles as I was doing the knife training and stuff for 'Dune', and then I put 'Bikeriders' on hold for a bit as I got closer to 'Dune'."

The 'Elvis' star continued: "I got really invested in that, and then my schedule on 'Dune' allowed me to come back to the States for two weeks between blocks.

"I shot for a month, and then I had two weeks off, and then I shot ('Dune') for another month, and then I had two weeks off, I went and did motorcycle training and then I went back to 'Dune'.

"So once I got into filming ('The Bikeriders'), I felt that I had a grasp on that just to make it easier for us."

'The Bikeriders' is based on a 1967 photo-book of the same name by Danny Lyon but Austin had little to go on as his character barely features in the material.

He explained: "There's all these interviews in the book with most of the other characters, but Benny was never interviewed and his face also wasn't photographed. You only ever see from behind or the top of his head as he's leaning over a pool table.

"So it was a lot of time and imagination in figuring out what makes him tick."