Austin Butler Slept on His 'Caught Stealing' Set to Prepare for New Role
Austin Butler reveals he slept on his ‘Caught Stealing’ set to prepare for the role, calling the experience “vulnerable.”
Austin Butler is known for going all in on his roles, and his next project, Caught Stealing, is no exception. The film, directed by 
Darren Aronofsky and opening August 29, 2025, casts Butler as Hank, a former baseball player turned bartender who gets pulled into a dangerous fight involving the Russian mob, corrupt cops, and Hasidic hitmen after agreeing to look after a neighbor’s cat.
To connect with the character, Butler spent a night in Hank’s East Village apartment set in NYC. “I played music, I danced around, and I ate Chinese food in there,” he told Variety. “I woke up to the crew coming in while I was in my underwear.”
Unlike his transformations in Elvis or Dune: Part Two, this role required Butler to play closer to himself, something he admitted left him feeling “vulnerable.” To build Hank’s look, he worked out but also drank beer to capture the feel of an athlete past his prime.