Austin Butler: The Fear of Cringe
“Am I not being authentic?”
When people talk about something
As personal as your voice—
It makes me go,
Wait, am I not…
Am I not being authentic?
I value honesty and authenticity so much.
You start questioning that.
When I was doing the movie,
I was afraid that people were not gonna like it—
They were gonna think I didn’t do a good job.
Then you get done with it and they’re like,
Oh, you sound too…
Somebody very close to me—
I was at a party once
And I was dancing
And they said:
“Embarrassment is an under-explored emotion.
Go out there and make a fool of yourself.”
Go for it,
Feel that feeling,
The fear of cringe,
Then go out there
And do it.
Because everything you want
Is on the other side of that.
Baz Luhrmann said that.
— Austin Butler
SubwayTakes with Kareem Rahma (2025)