Austin Butler says he auditioned for a lead role in “The Hunger Games”, but 'didn't get it at all'
"The Bikeriders" actor gave a one-word review of Josh Hutcherson's performance in the movie.
Austin Butler as Elvis? Yes! But Peeta? Nah.
The Bikeriders actor was asked recently to name a role that people would be surprised to hear that he was up for.
"I auditioned for The Hunger Games, and I didn't get it at all. I don't even think I got a callback. What's the character, Peeta?" Butler told BuzzFeed Celeb in an interview released Wednesday with his costar Jodi Comer.
Marilla Sicilia/Archivio Marilla Sicilia/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty; Murray Close/Lionsgate/courtesy Everett
Austin Butler, left, wanted to play the part of Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) in "The Hunger Games"Related: Watch Kelly Clarkson call out Austin Butler for being too perfect: 'Could you be any hotter?'
Butler didn't seem to have any hard feelings, though. He described the performance of Josh Hutcherson, the actor who did get the role, as "great."
The Hunger Games, which came out in 2012, was a hit and a lucrative blockbuster. The dystopian story, which imagines a world in which citizens are forced to publicly fight to the death, also stars Jennifer Lawrence, as heroine Katniss Everdeen, and Liam Hemsworth, as Gale Hawthorne. Based on a series of books by Suzanne Collins, the movie spawned three sequels and a prequel, with another in the works.
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At the time The Hunger Games was released, Butler was six years past his first professional acting credit, when he was on Hannah Montana. He had just finished his arc on the Freeform series Switched at Birth and was about to embark on his gig on Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries. He played Carrie's pre–Mr. Big love interest, Sebastian Kydd.
Related: Timothée Chalamet wants a musical cinematic universe with his Bob Dylan and Austin Butler's Elvis
His career had really picked up by 2019, when he appeared as the Manson family's Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, alongside Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. He was Elvis in Baz Luhrmann's biopic in 2022, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, before starring in the Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air, then big-budget sci-fi movie Dune: Part Two and his current release.
The guy's doing okay.
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