20 Actors Who Just Gave Their Best Performance Ever

5. Austin Butler - Caught Stealing

Life of Chuck Mark Hamill
Sony Pictures Releasing

Austin Butler has done a frankly fantastic job of shaking the whole Disney Kid label with a number of acclaimed performances - particularly his Oscar-nominated turn as Elvis and as villain Feyd in Dune: Part Two.

And as terrific as those performances were, it was enormously refreshing to see Butler play a more down-to-Earth character in Darren Aronofsky's new crime caper Caught Stealing.

What's most surprising about Butler's protagonist Hank Thompson is that he's far from the main character you'd probably expect a hot, young actor like Butler to play.

Far from a particularly brave or forthright hero, Hank is a strung-out alcoholic who regularly gets his ass kicked all while trying to avoid conflict wherever possible.

As a result Aronofsky's film gives Butler the floor to play a very different type of character, and while he did a fantastic job approximating the spirit of Elvis in Baz Luhrmann's biopic, his work here, playing an honest-to-God human being rather than an icon or over-the-top bad guy, is arguably more interesting and impressive.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.