Riding into Australian theatres this week, THE BIKERIDERS captures a rebellious time in America when the culture and people were changing. After a chance encounter at a local bar, strong-willed Kathy (Jodie Comer) is inextricably drawn to Benny (Austin Butler), the newest member of Midwestern motorcycle club, the Vandals led by the enigmatic Johnny (Tom Hardy). Much like the country around it, the club begins to evolve, transforming from a gathering place for local outsiders into a dangerous underworld of violence, forcing Benny to choose between Kathy and his loyalty to the club.
To celebrate the film’s local release, Peter Gray spoke with Oscar nominated star Austin Butler during his visit to coincide with The Bikeriders premiering at the Sydney Film Festival, touching on his friendship with co-star Tom Hardy, if his perception of motorcycle culture was altered during filming, and how he had to remind himself to stay in character during the riding sequences.
To celebrate the film’s local release, Peter Gray spoke with Oscar nominated star Austin Butler during his visit to coincide with The Bikeriders premiering at the Sydney Film Festival, touching on his friendship with co-star Tom Hardy, if his perception of motorcycle culture was altered during filming, and how he had to remind himself to stay in character during the riding sequences.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Peter Gray from the AU Review. Hello, Austin Butler.
00:04Hello. How are you?
00:06I'm very well, thank you. How are you? Welcome back to our fine country.
00:09Oh, it's good to be back.
00:11The unofficial son I like to think of you as at this point.
00:14I like that.
00:17I will say the moment that we see Benny from Cathy's point of view, I mean, that is a
00:23movie star entrance. And I know that Jeff Nichols noted that when he met you,
00:29you had been cast as Elvis, but he saw you in a way that he wasn't expecting
00:33because you didn't look like Elvis. And he immediately wanted to cast you.
00:37Was there like a certain, I don't know, pressure knowing how much you made an impression on him?
00:45No, I don't think so. Pressure because of that. No, I don't think so. Because he didn't talk
00:55to me about that type of thing. I mean, we just started talking about the story and
01:00what interested both of us and that sort of thing. And, you know, I owe him a lot and Adam Stone,
01:07our amazing cinematographer for the way that they shot all that. They made me look much cooler than
01:11I am. No, I mean, the bike riding sequences, I love that, you know, obviously the wind is in
01:17your hair as much as like the rocks and dirt that like come at you. I imagine there's like
01:21kind of this beauty to it, but also probably this like visceral nature to those scenes. Like
01:28how was it to film those bike riding sequences? I imagine it's probably a lot more dangerous than we
01:33probably expect. Yeah, it, I mean, my biggest problem was I had to remind myself to not smile
01:43because I was enjoying myself so much. And it was an exhilarating feeling, you know,
01:50riding this giant pack of motorcycles and being up front with one of my heroes, Tom Hardy,
01:56and looking over at him and we're riding through a cornfield in Cincinnati. And that was, it was
02:01so special. So I just had to remind myself to keep a, keep a cool, serious look on my face.
02:08You had to remind yourself, like, be an actor in this moment.
02:11Yeah, just remind yourself of who you are. Yeah.
02:15And speaking of like Tom Hardy, like he is such a, he's such like a force on screen. And I've
02:22heard that he's actually, like a lot of people have this perception of him, but I mean, it seems
02:28like he kind of, he's a lot funnier than people, than people think. That's exactly what I said
02:34about him. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so your experience with him was like, did you go in with a certain
02:38mindset and he kind of changed your perception of him? He, yes.
02:43Well, I tried to, to sort of not have any expectations, you know, I've, yeah, I didn't
02:53know what his process would be. And, and he, he really, I think I lucked out as well, because our
03:00characters have such a love for each other. They're this brotherly bond. So before we even started
03:06shooting, Tom came, came over and we just, we hung out and told stories and bonded and, and he,
03:17you know, we were able to be vulnerable with each other and share some humanity. And,
03:22and so by the time that we were on set, we felt very close, you know, and like you said, I mean,
03:27he's one of the, one of the best sense of humor that I've ever met. He's, he's incredibly
03:36funny and a great storyteller in every way. And, and then also intense and strong and powerful and
03:43dynamic and has this volcanic energy inside of him. And it's, it's, it's an amazing combination.
03:49Yeah. No, it's funny that like, I feel like because I've seen so many interviews with him,
03:53where he's like playing with like puppies and stuff. I'm like, he doesn't seem like he's as
03:57intense as he is, but then he can actually fight. And yeah, he's a cool guy. And with like,
04:06has this, I mean, I don't know if you did have a perception of like motorcycle culture,
04:10but has this like changed the way that you think of that whole, that whole movement?
04:14Yeah, I, well, for one, it, it changed my understanding of, of the essence of a group
04:24of people who love to ride motorcycles, you know, it, how they, these, these clubs really started
04:30as just groups who love to race motorcycles and talk about bikes and, and then they evolve over
04:38time and, and change. And, but that, that was definitely something. The other thing is just
04:44the mentality and, and the, the sort of philosophy and spiritual aspect of riding motorcycles and
04:54these conversations that we get into, like Jeff Milburn, who most of the bikes in the film are
04:58his personal bikes. And all he does is talk about motorcycles and ride motorcycles all day long.
05:03And he was telling me the other day, he said, just, he and I went out for this long ride together
05:08after we were doing a press junket and we were like, let's get out of here. Let's, and so we
05:12got on bikes and we just left. And we rode around for a few hours. And at one point we pulled over
05:18and we're talking and he said, isn't it great that how free you feel? He's like, you're free.
05:24You're like, you don't have your phone. You don't have, nobody's telling you what to do.
05:28He said, the other thing is your life is in your hands. And, and that's, he said, you, you have such
05:34agency right now because you are the only one who is responsible for your life right now. And
05:41it's kind of an amazing thing. It kind of dawned on me that that's the, he put words to the feeling
05:46that I sometimes get when you're on a motorcycle and you get off and you feel more grounded or you
05:52feel more in touch with yourself in some way. And that was kind of a, so it's philosophies like
05:57that, that, you know, really affected me. Yeah, no, I like that. It sort of played into the whole
06:02thing of like the, like the wild one being mentioned in like, did that, did that emulate
06:07bike culture or did bike culture emulate the wild one? And I love that the film so sort of
06:13brings about a new version of like masculinity. And it's like this film is about masculinity.
06:18Brings about a new version of like masculinity. And it's like, this film shows how there can be
06:23that love between men without it being a sexual thing. As you said, like there's like this nice
06:29relationship between everybody. And I think that's one of the things I responded to the most about
06:34this film that had a lot more sweetness to it than I was expecting. So yeah. And just, I mean,
06:40as I said, your performance in this, when I saw you on screen for the first time, I was like,
06:44man, this guy is just like, we need, we need him on every single possible movie screen we can see.
06:50So congratulations. Thank you so much for saying that. No worries. And yeah, as I said, like
06:57always, always welcome to come back to this country anytime. I love it. I never want to leave.
07:03I mean, we can, we can, we can stop you if you want. Thank you. Thank you.
07:07Hey, thank you, Peter. Great stuff, man. Nice to see you.
07:11Cheers. See you on the next one.
07:12Cheers. See you later.
07:13Bye.