Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya revealed that encountering their co-star, Austin Butler, on the set of Dune: Part Two was not quite what they expected.
In a new interview with CNN on Thursday, Zendaya shared that meeting Austin – who dons transparent skin, black teeth and an eyebrow-less face for his role as the merciless villain Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen — during her first day on set in Budapest was “quite jarring”.
“I was like, ‘Well, this is one way to get to know someone!’” she said of being introduced to Austin in-costume.
Feyd-Rautha was previously played by musician Sting in David Lynch’s 1985 adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel.
“It was also funny because once you get to know Austin, you see that he’s obviously very warm and very kind,” she added.
“From just five seconds ago, being this terrifying creature, and then being like, ‘Hey, how are you? Good to see you!’”
Leading man Timothée echoed having a similarly “crazy” reaction to seeing Austin’s drastic transformation.
The Bones And All star recalled being nervous when he met Austin in a stunt warehouse to rehearse one of their fight scenes, considering the two had to be “pretty aggressive” with each other “right off the bat”.
“(It was) a lot of rehearsal. A lot of practice in LA, before even getting over to Hungary,” Timothée said. “But it was a dream.”
Earlier this week, Austin spoke about how he approached playing the “demonic” character.
“The thing with a villainous character — I’d never played a character quite like it, and I didn’t want to judge him,” he said on The Tonight Show.
He added: “It was a lot of imagining what his childhood was like, and thankfully seeing the first film, Stellan Skarsgard’s character, the Baron, he’s amazing... I just imagined what it would be like growing up with him as my father.”
Dune: Part Two follows the “mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family,” according to the film’s synopsis.
Dune: Part Two, which also stars Josh Brolin, Christopher Walken and Florence Pugh, is in cinemas now.