Austin Butler faced hidden injury while promoting ‘Dune: Part Two’

Austin Butler, known for his role as Feyd-Rautha, the ruthless nephew of Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, recently revealed a surprising behind the scenes story.

The film, a huge success earning over $714 million and winning an Oscar for Visual Effects, featured Butler as one of its central villains opposite Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides.

While promoting Dune, the 34-year-old unknowingly stepped on a piece of glass in a hotel room during the press tour.

He thought that it was just a small bruise or a nerve issue as he continued working only to later discover that the glass had been stuck in his foot for eight months.

“That feels dumb when I look back at it,” Butler told People magazine while promoting his new film Caught Stealing, adding, “When I was on the Dune press tour, I was in Korea doing all these interviews, and I was in a hotel room and I was walking barefoot.”

He added, “I must've stepped on a piece of glass. ... But for whatever reason, I thought that it was a nerve thing in my foot. So I just was hobbling around for eight months. And then right before we were starting to film [Caught Stealing], I was just pushing through the pain of running.”

At one point, the Elvis star even sought advice from a man at a New York bodega, before finally seeing a doctor who removed the glass.

Thankfully, Austin Butler’s foot has now fully healed, and the actor can run pain-free again.