Austin Butler Explains Bad Bunny Dance Moves

Buzz Feed

16 hours ago

Earlier this month, Austin Butler went viral after he was spotted on stage during Bad Bunny's Puerto Rico residency, with the actor's questionable dance moves causing quite a stir on social media.
In case you missed it, Bad Bunny, real name Benito Ocasio, has two stage areas for these shows, and one of them — which is made to look like a casita — is both a performance area and a VIP section.
And as Benito was performing, Austin was caught on camera leaning nonchalantly against the casita with his arm crossed tightly across his body. But he isn't stationary. Instead, Austin is seemingly feeling the music as he dramatically sways his hips and smiles to himself.
Needless to say, people were left baffled by Austin's moves — with some observing that he looks 'scared to move,' while others theorizing that he's 'boring' at parties, and has "no rhythm."
But during his appearance on The Tonight Show on Tuesday, Austin explained that there was way more to the situation than meets the eye as he acknowledged that he did look pretty out of place.
First things first — and perhaps most importantly — the star admitted that he'd taken an edible shortly before the show. Secondly, Austin revealed that he had no idea that he was going to be on display during Benito's performance.
Speaking to Jimmy Fallon, the Oscar-nominated actor started out by explaining that he and Benito became friends after starring in their upcoming movie, Caught Stealing, together.
'We went to Benito's show, and we had lunch with him earlier in the day, and he was kind of telling us about the show, but I didn't realize what it was gonna be,' Austin began. 'How they have the main stage, and then I thought we were going to be in the audience, like, with everybody, and so somebody gave me an edible right before the show, and I thought that was a good idea at the time.'
'I ate the edible, and then it turns out we're in, like, a casita, a house that is basically the second stage that he comes out on,' the star continued, before sharing that he is shy, saying: 'I'm in an ironic job because I don't really like people singing 'Happy Birthday' to me, and suddenly I'm on stage with Bad Bunny and the edible is… Working.'
'It was wild, and it's like my brain is in two movies,' Austin went on. 'Because one, I think: 'I'm so proud of [Benito],' and I'm watching him going: 'Oh my god, look how much you mean to everyone here,' I'm falling in love with Puerto Rican culture, and the dancing, and everybody's so sexy and amazing… And then the other part of me is like: 'Don't dance.''
'Because you'll take attention away from him, this is his moment!' Austin explained. 'So I'm like: 'Hide!' My body's kind of saying 'hide,' but the music's so good, and it's in my bones at some point, so I'm wanting to dance but then the other voice is saying: 'Don't take attention away!' So I ended up just like swaying my hips and crossing my arms.'Jimmy then left Austin red-faced when he played a clip of his dancing before imitating his guest's moves from behind his desk.
'For whatever reason, every time I uncrossed my arms I felt like I was drawing attention to myself!' Austin sheepishly admitted, before adding that he was wary of looking like the 'sad Ben Affleck' meme, saying: 'I don't want to be the sad guy, but you also don't want to be the guy who's dancing crazy and drawing attention.'
Austin then asked Jimmy if he'd ever felt that way at a show, and Jimmy confessed that he did feel uncomfortable at Harry Styles' concert because he was so much older than most of the crowd.But Jimmy wasn't letting Austin get away that easy, quipping that no matter how uncomfortable he was, he didn't resort to pulling out the actor's edible-induced dance moves.
You can watch the full interview moment — including Austin's dance — below, as always, let me know what you make of it all in the comments!