Featured Image Credit: Paramount / Warner Bros
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity
Claire Reid
Austin Butler and Miles Teller missed out on roles to each other in two of this year’s biggest movies, a casting director has revealed.
The record-smashing Top Gun: Maverick and Oscar-tipped biopic Elvis have both celebrated tremendous success this year, but the two blockbusters could have turned out quite differently.
Butler’s depiction of Elvis has wowed audiences, while Top Gun: Maverick’s Lieutenant Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw has also seriously impressed viewers and critics alike, but a casting director has said the two men were pretty close to taking the other’s role.
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Speaking to Variety, casting director Denise Chamian said she spotted Butler’s talent back in 2013 when he auditioned for a part in The Maze Runner, but decided he wasn’t quite right for the role because he was too young.
Fast-forward a few years and Butler ‘came close’ to nabbing himself the role of Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick, which Chamian also cast, but ultimately decided to go with Teller.
In an unusual turn of events, Teller was one of Baz Luhrmann’s choices for Elvis, alongside Harry Styles, but Chamian put forward Butler, who ended up getting the role.
Talking about Butler, she told the publication: “The thing that he got the closest to was Top Gun. When I cast that, we were looking for the role that Miles Teller played. I felt so passionate about Austin. Ultimately, his audition was shown to Tom and all the filmmakers.
“They agreed he had something and they were happy to know him, but they thought he was too young. At that point, I saw that this actor has something very special that other people don’t always have. It’s almost the way he looks into the camera. He knows the camera and lets the camera see him, and that is really what is so captivating.”
Chamian said she was ‘blown away’ by Butler’s performance, and she’s not the only one. Shortly after the film was released fans flocked to social media calling for the star to be nominated for an Oscar.
One wrote: "Austin Butler embodied Elvis in every way. The film paid homage to African American music, stage performance, and clothes from Beale St. Hanks, as usual was great. Oscars all around!"
Another commented: "And the Oscar goes to…. #AustinButler.”
While a third wrote: "Austin Butler is definitely gonna be a favourite at the Oscars for his performance in Elvis.”
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