‘Caught Stealing’ Confirms Austin Butler’s Status as an A-List Movie Star

The changing media landscape and our changing media consumption habits mean that movie stars don’t become movie stars the way they used to. New releases at the multiplex have to contend with every previously released film that’s readily available, plus thousands of TV series on hundreds of streaming platforms, not to mention dozens of social media apps that take up plenty of our time and attention. A handsome, talented leading man can’t rocket to fame anymore thanks only to a good performance and a well-lit photograph on the cover of a magazine. Movie stardom requires carefully calibrated and constant curation of one’s online persona, plus involvement in a string of hit features, which is becoming an increasingly tall task.

Two or three decades ago, Austin Butler would’ve been the next big chiseled face with the piercing eyes in every grocery store checkout aisle. Today, the 34-year-old actor has an Instagram account with nearly 4 million followers. Fans can catch him chatting over chicken wings on Hot Ones or taking a lie detector test on Vanity Fair‘s YouTube page. So far, he’s succeeded in Hollywood (as well as anyone can these days) by making all the right moves. He shares just enough about himself to keep the public interested, and he selects projects that highlight the fact that he’s a team player with taste and range, in addition to those good looks. Butler’s starring role in Caught Stealing is the latest example.

Butler Chose the Right Roles With the Right Directors in the Right Movies

Warner Bros.

The California native should get credit for navigating the first major obstacle on the path to stardom: child acting. As a teenager, Butler could be seen on tween shows like Hannah Montana and iCarly, and later in procedural dramas like CSI: Miami and CSI: NY, in guest spots. He became something closer to a household name as the love interest of a young Carrie Bradshaw in The Carrie Diaries. These kinds of roles could’ve served as a launching pad to a lucrative career as a TV hunk, but instead, Butler swerved to bit parts in auteur genre movies. He briefly appeared in Jim Jarmusch’s 2019 horror comedy, The Dead Don’t Die, before being cast as Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which also debuted that same year.

Butler only had a few minutes of screen time as the real-life member of the Manson family, but he made them count. His follow-up was the title role in another critical and commercial juggernaut. 2022’s Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann, earned Butler his first Oscar nomination. He’d go on to lose to Brendan Fraser and his comeback story with The Whale (directed by Caught Stealing’s Darren Aronofsky), which will probably be seen as a good thing for Butler’s career in the long run. While praise for his performance was near-unanimous, the only controversy the actor has had to weather so far is that he couldn’t seem to shed the crooner’s accent on the press tour.

He next starred as the lead in the 2023 ensemble drama The Bikeriders, alongside Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy. Early on, Jeff Nichols’ adaptation of a non-fiction photojournalism book about a motorcycle gang was seen as yet another awards contender. In the end, it was well-respected but perhaps too small to register, but it maintained Butler’s reputation as more than a pretty boy. A year later, he took on the small but coveted role of Feyd-Rautha in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, and his bold interpretation of the character was one of the elements most often singled out by critics. Most recently, he went weird for Ari Aster in the political satire, Eddington.

In just over five years, Butler has worked with some of the industry’s most acclaimed directors, starred in three best picture nominees, and held his own on screen against the likes of Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Timothée Chalamet, and Joaquin Phoenix. But, more important than the clout was the substance of the projects and the trajectory his career was taking. Breakout featured role? Check. Music biopic? Check. Indie cred? Check. Big-budget beloved sci-fi flick? Check. It’s a formula that’s worked for other actors, including some of his A-list co-stars.

With ‘Caught Stealing,’ Austin Butler Levels up to Movie Star

Zoe Kravitz Austin Butler Caught Stealing

Caught Stealing is Darren Aronofsky’s latest film, but it feels like Austin Butler’s movie. Aronofsky is the director behind major downers like Requiem for a Dream, as well as bewildering experiments like Mother! Though it still contains some of his signature elements (namely, psychological and physical distress), Caught Stealing is a line drive straight down the middle of the field compared to the rest of his filmography. Hank (Butler), a once-promising baseball prospect whose life has gone far afield of his expectations, finds himself unintentionally entangled in the drug trade of late 1990s New York City. The film is such a throwback; anyone could’ve made it and starred in it, but it’s better than average because of Aronofsky, and it’s special because of Butler.

Butler did exactly what he needed to do with Tex, Elvis, and Feyd-Rautha, but those were distinctly defined roles and cogs in a bigger machine. Hank is the most human character he’s ever played, and he’s in nearly every minute of the movie. He’s a charming, funny, good-hearted mama’s boy. He’s also a deeply depressed and emotionally stunted alcohol abuser. The movie depends entirely on Butler’s ability to be a convincing everyman who’s also magnetic enough to hold the screen for almost two hours. He also has crackling chemistry with his co-star, Zoë Kravitz, and shines in the film’s many demanding action sequences.

It’s not looking like Caught Stealing is going to be a box office smash, but with strong reviews and good word of mouth, it should do well once it’s available to stream. Ironically, it might be a little too commercial to earn Butler or Aronofsky any awards attention. The director does have a history of getting his actors Oscar nominations (Ellen Burstyn, Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei) and even wins (Natalie Portman, Fraser), but if that’s not in the cards for Caught Stealing, and if it doesn’t rake in money, it doesn’t mean Butler’s made a mistake.

This incredibly starry performance in a solid movie still represents a leveling-up for the 34-year-old. It’s proof of concept that he’s the kind of leading man who can elevate anything he’s in, and in an industry as competitive as the entertainment business, that’s what it’s going to take to get another turn at the plate. Caught Stealing is in theaters now.