Austin Butler enjoys doing his own stunts — and sometimes, he pays the physical price.
Butler, 34, recalled shooting the iconic ending fight scene in 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that ends with his character, Tex Watson, getting his butt kicked by Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth and his pitbull, Brandy.
“In rehearsals, he got me in such a way that he tore my rotator cuff,” the actor told Men’s Health in the Tuesday, August 19, episode of their “Stunt School” series, recalling how the dog attacked him in real life.
“I come in the house and I’m holding a gun on Brad. Because of the camera angle they wanted me to hold the gun with my left hand,” Butler recalled of the scene. “Then the dog, he’s supposed to jump off the chair and grab my left arm.”
Butler was wearing a sweatshirt in rehearsal, but said the team “wrapped my hand in leather so this 80-pound pitbull can grab onto my arm and rip at me.”
Because the pitbull tore his left rotator cuff, when it came to the shoot day he swapped arms.
“He was very strong. And so then we did it on the right arm on the day,” Butler explained. “And I realized I need to hold on tight, otherwise he’s going to rip my arm off.”
Luckily for Butler, his stunt double, Braxton McAllister, took one for the team and filmed the part of the fight where the dog bites Tex in the groin.
Looking back, Butler said director Quentin Tarantino initially imagined the fight being “a lot longer,” as it’s the pivotal moment that Tex and fellow Manson Family members accidentally enter Cliff and Rick Dalton’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) home instead of their intended victim, the late actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie).
“When we got there, [Tarantino] said, ‘You know what? It doesn’t make sense for you to be a good fighter,’” Butler remembered. “Brad’s character is, like, a special forces guy, so if he can’t take you out quickly, then it doesn’t feel right.”
The scene, which is a twist on the real-life murder of Tate and six others in 1969 by Charles Manson’s followers in Los Angeles, was cut short — but still packed a punch. (Manson, for his part, died in 2017 at age 83 while serving nine life sentences for his role in orchestrating the seven murders.)
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a dream come true in so many ways,” Butler said. “I was able to do a lot of different fun things in this movie.”
In addition to doing many of his own stunts, Butler enjoyed being able to ride horses — including a fun scene to start his time as Tex.
“The day that Quentin cast me, he said, ‘You know I got this idea where you take off on this horse,’” the actor said, noting that what viewers don’t see about that moment is that he’s “riding on concrete for about half of the take.”
Butler was warned that “horses don’t have a lot of traction on concrete” so the stunt team told him to “just take it 50 percent” on the take, but Tarantino, 62, showed up before they yelled “action!”
“I kicked up that horse and we went as fast as we possibly could,” Butler said with a laugh, noting that his grandfather taught him to ride. “Seeing a smile on his face made me happy.”
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