Dune: Part Two star Austin Butler reveals he improvised having his villain kiss on-screen uncle Stellan Skarsgard: He's 'game for anything'

Austin Butler recently revealed that he was responsible for one of the creepier moments in his massively popular new film Dune: Part Two.

While speaking at the red carpet for the New York City premiere late last month, the 32-year-old actor told Access Hollywood that he improvised a kiss his character shares on screen with the film's head villain, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, played by a prosthetics-covered Stellan Skarsgård.

The film, which has become the first blockbuster of 2024, features a scene in which Butler's character, the Baron's hairless nephew Feyd-Rautha, battles to the death with several gladiators to prove that he is the true heir to the Harkonnen throne.

After he is victorious, Feyd-Rautha seals his moment of triumph by kissing Skarsgård's character on the lips in front of a massive stadium of cheering onlookers.

The Elvis star praised his fellow actor Skarsgård for being game to include something that wasn't in the original script.

Austin Butler, 32, revealed that he improvised a kiss between his Dune 2 character Feyd-Rautha and his uncle Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) at the NYC premiere last month

Butler's character kisses his uncle on the lips in front of a cheering stadium after emerging triumphant in a bloody gladiatorial battle to secure his status as the Baron's heir; still from Dune 2

'Oh, yeah. He’s game for anything,' he said. 'He’s the best. ... It’s always about how you’re trying to affect somebody else.'

Although Butler improvised the kiss, that doesn't mean that he surprised Skarsgård — and director and co-writer Denis Villeneuve — on the day of.

Improvising for film actors involves departing from the script as written, but they often will run by their desired change with the director and any affected costars, as wasting a take on something the director would not approve would be costly on a major production like Dune: Part Two.

Butler recently shared with Entertainment Weekly that he learned to mimic the vocal patterns of Skarsgård, who is Swedish.

'I felt that because he grew up with the Baron, the Baron would be a big influence on him in many ways,' he explained. 'So then I started thinking about the way that he speaks, and that being linked to the person that you see with the most power from the time that you’re a child, who you do end up emulating in some way.'

While chatting with ScreenRant, he added: 'I was working with Tim Monich, who's sort of the godfather of dialect coaches, and he helped me to really hone in on Stellan's voice and what he does in the film.'

The attempts to mimic Skarsgård's mannerisms also helped him to key into the Baron's murderous instincts and desires.

'It is also just figuring out how his childhood shapes him into who he becomes,' Butler explained. 'When you're raised in brutality, you have a necessity for violence in order to be able to survive, so I think that ends up changing the way that his mind is.'

The Baron and Feyd-Rautha work together in Dune: Part Two on their plan to destroy Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), after he survives the Baron's attempts to eradicate all of House Atreides in the first film.

Feyd-Rautha's ascendance as heir to House Harkonnen means he also sidesteps the Baron's older nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista), who is physically imposing but nowhere near as cunning as him.

In one scene, he forces muscle-bound killer to kneel and kiss his feet in order to humiliate him.

'Oh, yeah. He’s game for anything,' Butler said of his costar Skarsgård to Access Hollywood. 'He’s the best. ... It’s always about how you’re trying to affect somebody else'; sen February 22 in Seoul, South Korea

Although Butler improvised the kiss, it's unlikely that he did it as a surprise. Film actors who improvise usually run the idea past their director and costars first; Skarsgård seen February 12 in Paris

Butler recently shared with Entertainment Weekly that he learned to mimic the vocal patterns of Skarsgård, who is Swedish; pictured February 26 in NYC

While chatting with USA Today, Dave Bautista told Butler that he was totally game to film a scene in which his character kisses Butler's feet as a sign

'That scene was so wild because I have so much respect for for,' he told Bautista while chatting with USA Today.

Luckily, Bautista was totally onboard with the scene, even though some of his fellow Hollywood action icons might have balked at the display.

'A lot of actors would be like, "I don't want to do that." But I thought it was so great. This is when I get to show who Rabban really is,' Bautista responded. 'He's just a coward. Right then, he's put in his place. You might have a moment where you actually feel sympathy for such a despicable character. So, yeah, I loved that scene.'

Dune: Part Two is in theaters now.