The part of Feyd was played by actor Austin Butler, who not only mastered the role but created a character described by the Director as being (WATCH NOW) a cross between a psychotic killer and Mick Jagger and a swords master, physically imposing evil and willful malevolence. Being one of the most Iconic characters in the novel from which the movie was derived made getting this character right a big deal.
Austin describes the process of immersing his mind into his character and spending several months going through fight training, rehearsing his movements with his feet, and using a knife as a weapon. It was during this time that he carefully studied how the character walked, breathe, and held his posture of arrogance with the propensity to kill at the milliseconds notice.
But on a deeper level, in this mini documentary, his fight instructor said to him, pretend, as if you are rewarding yourself by eating the souls of everyone you kill. In addition, Austin’s character required having a bald head and a certain contour of the forehead and skull to resemble handsomeness, yet void of emotion, a psychotic killer, yet a military leader. Many of Austins call actors remarked about how he constantly stayed in character. This amazed of them all, and was seen as a mark of professionalism.
IMAGE: Actor Austin Butler – Being transformed by make-up artists into Feyd – Warner Bros Entertainment.
But what was at stake? The evil within his character is consumed by defending his family’s honor. That honor took shape in the form of controlling the economy of the planet, Arakus as well as the wealth that flowed from it to the other planetary systems, and the income generated. The wealth was mind-boggling and worth killing for. It took them several hours to transform Austin into this ominous killer and they succeeded beyond measure.
No responses yet