“It almost cracked my rib”: Austin Butler recalls the intense fight scene from Caught Stealing

Austin Butler is ready to be bruised up if it helps the scene seem more authentic. That's why he didn't hesitate to give it his all while shooting a scene in his upcoming crime thriller, Caught Stealing.

"I get beaten up by these two Russians in this film. This one [man], Nikita [Kukushkin], he has got so much power. So, he starts really laying into me and kicking me hard, and then he had this idea of headbut*ing me in the side, and he did it so hard that it almost cracked my rib [just] with his head," Butler said.

The 34-year-old star was speaking with Men's Health magazine about the grueling action scenes he had to perform for the new Darren Aronofsky movie. The filmmaker is usually known for his intense psychological thrillers. Caught Stealing feels like a slight departure since it seems more focused on the stunts and the underlying humor.

Even then, the director would want the film to look and feel as authentic as possible. So, for his latest project, set in 1990s New York, he wanted every bit of action to look real and to represent that era of the city's gritty, criminal underbelly.

It was up to Austin Butler and the cast to do justice to Darren Aronofsky's vision, and judging by the actor's reaction, he worked on everything diligently.

Austin Butler talks about working on action scenes in Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing

Austin Butler walked past his Disney fame with a stellar performance in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, as the King of Rock and Roll. Since then, he has starred in Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders and Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two. Butler is no stranger to stunts. The Bikeriders required bikes rides across the US, while his role in Dune: Part Two involved gripping knife fights.

The Darren Aronofsky film has taken him further. The fights in this film may not look as neat and clean, but it's no joke to get beaten and bruised anyway. While speaking about working with the Requiem for a Dream director, Austin Butler said,

“He put me through the ringer on this film. It’s a lot of running away from people chasing me with cars and getting beaten up repeatedly."

In the film, Butler plays a former baseball player who, often unwittingly, gets caught in the world of crime. So, the film needed to portray his restlessness, besides his relentless spirit. To get it right, the film involved many chase scenes, apart from some ugly action sequences that can test the patience of the performers.

“I get beaten up by these two Russians in this film. This one — Nikita, who’s a short king — he’s got so much power. When he was kicking me, he didn’t want to kick me very hard. He felt bad and I kept telling him, ‘Just kick me. Just kick me harder,'” Austin Butler said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

And then it happened! In order to make it all look real, the Russian actor beat the Oscar-nominated star so hard that it almost cracked his rib.

There's another scene where Austin Butler gets beaten up on a table. The crew initially decided to use a table made with a soft, foam-like material to dampen the impact. However, that way, the scene might not have looked convincing. So, they brought an actual wooden table for the scene, to make it look authentic.

There were stunt doubles on the set, but the scene was designed in a way that the actor had to be present in the shot. That led Austin Butler to perform the intense fight scene on his own.

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Also read: Where was Caught Stealing shot? Revisiting key filming locations of the upcoming crime comedy

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