Austin Butler Credits Tom Hardy, Laura Dern for Quitting Method Acting

by August 21, 2025

As Austin Butler continues to take on darker roles, he's getting advice from some A-listers who are helping him see that he can "come out on the other side."

In a new Men's Health coverage to promote his upcoming thriller, Caught Stealing Like This, directed by Darren Aronofsky, Butler opens up about what he learned from other actors who helped him transition away from method acting. In particular, after the actor finished filming 2022's Elvis , he "ran to the hospital" due to his body's "shutdown."

"For a long time, I felt like it had to be a tortured process and would leave the other side broken," Butler said. "Rather than just walking away and trying to pretend they don't exist, it's like getting into the raw pieces of yourself, entering the pieces you don't want to look at, and finding a way to integrate them into the whole."

However, while recently filming the A24 crime film, Enemies, alongside Jeremy Allen White, she decided to create more balance in her life.

To unwind from his hectic schedule during filming, he turns to exercise and taking a cold shower, which helps him fall asleep. This routine was something he observed from Tom Hardy, his co-star in 2023's Bikers . He recalled, "After shooting all night, Hardy would come home, put on a weighted vest, and earn 1,000 heels of cash." Butler added that he also needs to get outside and get some sun: "I'm just trying to find little things like that. Sometimes it's the little mundane things."

White noted, "I think Austin is at this point in his life where doing the best work he can is very important, and I think it always will be, but I think he's also looking for some stability in his life."

And while it didn't work out for Laura Dern on a project before, after he met her at an event, she helped him see that when he's "exploring his shadow self" in a heavier role, it doesn't mean he's "destroying the rest of his life," the article explained.

"She's increasingly helping me see that you can come out the other side, and maybe pieces of you have healed, synthesized, and metabolized. It can be therapeutic, in a way," Butler said.

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