Austin Butler feels "nostalgic" over the early days of his career.
The 32-year-old actor became one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood following his acclaimed performance as the King of Rock n Roll in the 2022 biopic 'Elvis' but still has fond memories of appearing in 'Sex and the City' prequel 'The Carrie Diaries' more than a decade ago.
He told E! News: "'Carrie Diaries' for me was a time where I moved to New York for the first time. I was surrounded by people that I love to be around, I learned a lot and I was falling in love with that city and so I look back with a lot of nostalgia."
The 'Dune: Part Two' star appeared alongside 'Bridge to Terabithia' AnnaSophia Robb - who took on the role made famous by Sarah Jessica Parker - in the CW series and reflected being "surrounded by people" during that time in an environment that simply "doesn't exist" for him anymore.
He said: "You have these moments in time where certain people surround you or you're in a particular environment and then after a while that time doesn't exist anymore. And then you're just left with that feeling of nostalgia."
Austin began his career in the late 2000s, when he appeared opposite Miley Cyrus on the Disney Channel sitcom 'Hannah Montana' and then later with Britney Spears' sister Jamie Lynn in the Nickelodeon series 'Zoey 101'.
But he used to strive to be like Leonardo DiCaprio - who shot to worldwide fame in his early 20s after playing Jack Dawson in 'Titanic' - and thought he would never hit the big time when he reached that age himself.
He told Vanity Fair: "From the very beginning, when I first got on set, it was just a neat thing that I could do as a 12-year-old kid. Then once I started going to acting class and realized there’s a craft behind it—that sort of became this addiction for me. Addiction might be a strong word, but obsession with finding honesty, really. I started looking at a lot of different people’s careers.
And Leo, when I was about 15, became that guy, because he’d made that transition. Every film that he chose, you could see the level of passion that he still had for the work. And that’s been a surreal thing, looking back at what my dreams were when I was 15, and then getting to work with the people that he got to work with, getting to be on set with him. There’s a lot of these pinch-me moments in my life and that’s definitely one of them."
