Austin Butler Turns Down ‘Top Gun 2’ Test for Tarantino

Austin Butler’s life changed with Elvis, but to some he’s the guy who cut his teeth on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon fare. For others, however, his breakthrough was as Tex Watson, the convicted Manson killer, in Quentin Tarantino’s film. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. As the killer, he’s alternately terrifying and pathetic, even before he’s horribly dispatched by Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth. (Note: Watson is still very much alive and very much in prison in real life.) It’s not a huge role, but it was juicy enough that Butler shot another big, very different movie.

“I had to choose between going for the screen test Top Gun: Maverick Or saying yes to Quentin Tarantino,” Butler revealed on a recent live episode of the podcast. Happy Sad Confused (As caught Indiewire). “I had already met with (Tarantino), so I did it.”

Butler did not reveal which Maverick character he would be auditioning for. Was he the gung ho show-off hangman, eventually played by Glenn Powell? Another one with fun code names? In any case, he would have had to go through really painful-sounding training and fly real planes? Instead he beat the crap out of Brad Pitt while one of the best movie dogs of 2019 pounced on his nuts.

Besides, he was supposed to be piloting a new show on Apple TV+ later anyway Masters of the AirSo it all worked out in the end.

(Via Indiewire)