Austin Butler Says an Edible Is the Reason for His Awkward Dancing at Bad Bunny Concert

Austin Butler is breaking down the reason for his awkward dancing at the Bad Bunny concert that recently went viral on social media.

The Oscar-nominated actor stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, where he recalled his experience attending one of the rapper-singer’s shows for his No Me Quiero Ir De Aquí (I Don’t Want to Leave Here) residency in Puerto Rico.

“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 going to be,” Butler explained. “It’s insane! They love him and to see what he means to Puerto Rican culture.”

He continued, “But also the actual show, how they structure it — you have the main stage and then I thought we were just going to be in an audience with everybody. So somebody gave me an edible right before the show and I thought that was a good idea at the time. So I ate the edible, and then it turns out we’re in, like, a casita, a house, that is basically the second stage and he’s on that stage at one point.”

The Elvis star noted that he’s “in an ironic job” because he actually doesn’t like to be the center of attention, despite being an actor. “I don’t even like people singing Happy Birthday to me,” he quipped.

“So, suddenly, I’m onstage with Bad Bunny, and the edible is working,” Butler said. “It was wild!”

Due to the edible, the Dune: Part Two actor explained that his “brain’s in two movies” at that moment. “One is like, Benito and I had lunch earlier in the day. I’m just like, I’m so proud of him and I’m watching him going, ‘Oh, my God. Look how much you mean to everyone here.’ And I’m falling in love with Puerto Rican culture and the dancing, and everybody’s so sexy and amazing,” he said. “And the other part of me is like, don’t dance because you’ll take attention away from him. This is his moment.”

Butler explained it was a real inner battle because his “body’s kind of saying, ‘Hide,’” but “the music‘s so good.” So that’s why the actor ended up just “swaying my hips while crossing my arms,” leading to clips of his awkward dancing going viral.

“Because for whatever reason, every time I uncrossed my arms, I felt like I was drawing attention to myself,” Butler quipped. “Then I think of the Ben Affleck thing at the Grammys, where he said he wasn’t having a good time. And so you’re like, 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.”

In 2023, a photo of Affleck with a seemingly unenthusiastic facial expression at the Grammy Awards went viral, creating the “Sad Affleck” meme.

Butler and Bad Bunny co-star in Darren Aronofsky’s new film, Caught Stealing, which hits theaters on Aug. 29.