Austin Butler: I Had to ‘Choose Between Going to the Screen Test’ for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ or ‘Saying Yes to Quentin Tarantino’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director How do you choose between Tom Cruise and Quentin Tarantino? It’s a dilemma Austin Butler faced before his Oscar-nominated performance in “Elvis” turned him into a global star.

During an interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast (via People) while promoting his new Apple TV+ series “Masters of the Air,” Butler confirmed reports he was in the running to star opposite Cruise in the blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick.” “I ended up having to choose between going to the screen test for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ or saying yes to Quentin Tarantino,” Butler said.

Tarantino had offered the rising star a role in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.” Because Butler had wanted to work with the “Pulp Fiction” director “for so long,” he wasn’t going to let a potential Tom Cruise blockbuster get in the way. “I’d already met with [Tarantino], so I did that,” Butler said of his decision, which led to him playing Charles Manson cult member Charles Watson in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.” It was a smart decision on Butler’s part, as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis” casting director Denise Chamian previously told Variety that the “Top Gun” team ultimately felt he was too young for the role of Rooster, which ultimately would be played by Miles Teller.

But meeting Chamian during the “Maverick” casting process put Butler on her radar for “Elvis,” so it all worked out in the end. “The thing that he got the closest to was ‘Top Gun,'” Chamian said. “When I cast that, we were looking for the role that Miles Teller played.