Celebrity News January 11, 2024
Austin Butler on Airman Boot Camp & Boxing with Barry Keoghan (Exclusive)
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Austin Butler chatted with “Extra’s” Terri Seymour at the L.A. premiere of his new World War II series “Masters of the Air.”
The series was shot in England and Germany during the pandemic, and stars Austin and his “Elvis” co-star Tom Hanks, as well as Callum Turner and “Saltburn’s” Barry Keoghan. The series is about the brave young men who fought Adolf Hitler with bombing raids over Nazi Germany.
Austin shared, “I just felt privileged and honored to be a small part of this story.”
He dished on becoming friends with co-star Callum Turner, saying, “We’ve stayed good friends.”
He also laughed about castmate Barry Keoghan saying he taught him boxing!
“He’s a good boxer, he’s a good boxer… I will let him say that he taught me. I have been boxing before, so we boxed together a little bit.”
Terri asked about bonding with the other stars as they went through two weeks of boot camp together.
Butler said, “It was super fun. We were all wearing the same fatigues and doing the same push-ups together. And spending every hour of the day in the cold together. You really, really get to know each other, so we bonded.”
He added, "I wanted to give it everything I had, so we went to boot camp and we did all of that and just learned everything we possibly could about what a B-17's like. I felt as though I could fly one at the end, I don't know if that's true."
Austin and Hanks were working together again after co-starring in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”
Butler admitted, “I’d work with him on everything. I love him. He is the best. Doesn’t get any better.”
Ditto for Tom, who told Terri in a separate interview, "I knew we were going to be in awfully good hands because I saw his work ethic... I saw that guy go through a transformation every single day, in which I don’t think he had a single day off.”
Tom said he witnessed Austin once again "pour his heart and soul into something that was very, very different from the thing he had just poured his heart and soul into."
Seymour told him, “He wants to work with you all the time,” and Hanks replied, “Well, I say, ‘Let’s go, go, go.’”
“Masters of the Air” premieres Jan. 26 on Apple TV+.
To hear Austin's full interview, you can also download this week’s “Extra: The Podcast” on the Audacy app and everywhere podcasts are available. New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays.
