Austin Butler wasn’t trying to steal the spotlight, he was just panicking on the inside. While promoting his latest film on 'The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,' the 'Elvis' and 'Caught Stealing' star opened up about those now-viral dance clips from Bad Bunny’s 'No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí' residency in Puerto Rico.
The actor confessed that his stiff, confused moves weren’t exactly choreographed, but they were the result of a potent edible kicking in at the worst (or best?) possible moment. “We had lunch with [Bad Bunny] earlier in the day, and he was kind of telling us about the show, but I didn’t realize what it was going to be,” he told Fallon during the episode.
© NBC“The actual show, how they have it structured, you have the main stage, and then I thought we were just going to be in an audience with everybody," he explained. That misunderstanding set the stage for an unintentional cameo.
Butler explained, “Somebody gave me an edible right before the show, and I thought that was a good idea at the time. And so I ate the edible, and it turns out we’re in like a casita, a house, that is basically the second stage, that he comes and he’s on that stage at one point.”
© Kevin MazurSuddenly, Butler found himself inches from Bad Bunny while feeling the edible's full effects. “So, suddenly I’m on stage with Bad Bunny,” he recalled. “And the edible is working. So it’s like my brain is in two movies. One is like, ‘Benito and I had lunch earlier in the day, I’m just like, so proud of him.’”
© XNY/Star Max“Then, the other part of me is like, ‘Don’t dance, because you’ll take attention away from him. This is his moment.’ So I’m like, ‘hide,’ my body is saying ‘hide,’ but then the music is so good and it’s like in my bones at that point," he continued.
Butler defaulted to a now-viral dance move. The actor can be seen slowly hip swaying with tightly crossed arms. “I’m like, wanting to dance,” he admitted. “But then the other voice inside is saying, ‘Don’t take attention away,’ so I ended up just swaying my hips while crossing my arms. For whatever reason, every time I uncrossed my arms, I felt like I was drawing attention to myself.”
© Jose Perez/Bauer-GriffinAnd while the crowd was loving Bad Bunny, the internet had its own fun dissecting Butler’s half-frozen dance stance. He laughed off the comparisons, saying he didn’t want to pull a “Ben Affleck at the Grammys," appearing like he wasn’t having fun, despite being completely overwhelmed.
© Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin“I’m watching him going like, ‘Oh my god, look how much you mean to everyone here.’ I’m like, falling in love with Puerto Rican culture and the dancing and everybody is so sexy and amazing," he added.
