Austin Butler didn’t expect a night out at his Caught Stealing co-star Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rico residency to turn into a viral moment, but thanks to some unexpected circumstances, it did.
Speaking on the August 12 episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the 33-year-old actor revealed that before the concert, he thought he and director Darren Aronofsky would simply be part of the crowd.
Instead, they ended up on a secondary stage where Bad Bunny performs during certain moments of his show.
To make things more interesting, Butler said he had taken an edible “right before the show,” which he initially thought “was a good idea” but quickly realized might not have been.
Despite being a performer himself, Butler admitted he doesn’t enjoy being the center of attention, even avoiding situations like people singing “Happy Birthday” to him.
“So, suddenly I’m on stage with Bad Bunny and the edible is working. It was wild,” he said. “It’s like my brain is in two movies. One is like, ‘Benito and I had lunch earlier in the day, I’m just like, so proud of him.’”
As the concert went on, Butler said he found himself swept up in the moment.
“I’m watching him going like, ‘Oh my God, look how much you mean to everyone here.’ I’m like, falling in love with Puerto Rican culture and the dancing and everybody is so sexy and amazing,” he explained.
At the same time, another part of him kept thinking, “‘Don’t dance, because you’ll take attention away from him. This is his moment.’”
The viral clip shows the Elvis star smiling and subtly moving to the beat. Butler explained that he tried to “hide” but couldn’t resist the music entirely.
“I ended up just like swaying my hips while crossing my arms,” he said. “For whatever reason, every time I uncrossed my arms, I felt like I was drawing attention to myself. So I was like, ‘This is okay.’”
Part of his hesitation came from not wanting to be compared to Ben Affleck’s much-memed 2023 Grammys appearance.
“You don’t want to be the sad guy,” Butler said. “But you also don’t want to be the guy who’s dancing crazy and drawing attention.”
