Austin Butler Explained The Story Behind His Creepy Improvised Kiss With Stellan Skarsgård In “Dune: Part Two”

“He’s the best,” Austin said of his onscreen uncle. “It’s always about how you’re trying to affect somebody else.”

By
Ellen Durney
by Ellen Durney

BuzzFeed Staff

Austin Butler wasn’t afraid to get experimental while shooting Dune, and luckily his costars were on board.

A close-up of Austin Butler in a suit jacket as he poses for the camera on the red carpet
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Alongside Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, and Zendaya, Austin is currently starring in Dune: Part Two as the monstrous villain, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen.

A close-up of Feyd-Rautha with a bald head wearing a detailed high-collared outfit standing with a dark backdrop behind him
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For context, Feyd is the antagonist to Timothée’s Paul Atreides, and the nephew of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, played by Stellan Skarsgård.

Marking quite the transition from his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Elvis Presley, Austin’s turn as Feyd is being widely praised, and there’s one particular moment that viewers can’t seem to shake from their minds. Yep, we’re talking about that bizarre kiss.

Austin Butler wearing a stylish suit, seated with a microphone in hand
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In case you’ve not seen the film yet, the Baron promotes Feyd as the heir of the house and the next ruler of Arrakis. And during the ceremony, Feyd suddenly grabs his uncle by the face and kisses him in front of a cheering crowd.


Attempting to put aside the weirdness of the uncle/nephew dynamic, the smooch is presumably a demonstration of Feyd’s sadistic obsession with the Baron, who he was raised by and wishes to dethrone.

Needless to say, the kiss came as a bit of a shock to viewers — and it sounds like Stellan might have been a little taken aback too, with Austin revealing that the move wasn’t scripted.

Stellan Skarsgård in a suit at the 'Dune: Part Two' premiere
Jamie Mccarthy / WireImage

“[The kiss] with Stellan Skarsgård? Oh yeah!” the actor told Access Hollywood when asked if smooch was improvised on his part. 


“He’s game for anything,” Austin said of his costar. “He’s the best… it’s always about how you’re trying to affect somebody else.”

Notably, the kiss wasn’t the only thing that Austin implemented to reaffirm Feyd’s devotion to the Baron. During an interview with ScreenRant, the actor — who spent years mastering Elvis’s voice for Baz Luhrmann’s biopic — revealed that he worked with a top dialect coach to sound more like his onscreen uncle while shooting Dune.

Stellan and Austin engage in conversation at an event for Dune 2
Han Myung-gu / Getty Images

“It dawned on me that he would've grown up with the Baron, and the Baron being the one who has the most power and how we end up soaking in through osmosis those traits of people that we grow up with, but particularly those that we admire in some way,” Austin started by explaining.


“I was working with Tim Monich, who's sort of the godfather of dialect coaches, and he helped me to really hone in on Stellan’s voice and what he does in the film,” he continued, adding of his character: “When you're raised in brutality, you have a necessity for violence in order to be able to survive, so I think that ends up changing the way that his mind is.”

And for what it’s worth, it sounds like Stellan was impressed by Austin’s efforts, saying that acting opposite him was “like hearing an echo.”

From left to right: Timothee, Denis, Zendaya, Stellan, and Austin stand side by side for a group photo
Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images

“It was very, very precise,” the actor recently told Variety. “I laughed so much because it was so obvious that he really enjoyed being evil.”

Dune: Part Two is now in theaters.

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