How Regina King Found Support in ‘Caught Stealing’ Co-Star Austin Butler: ‘I Was Grateful to Have Someone Understand the Depth of Grief‘
Regina King has played her fair share of detectives over her 40-year career, so she knows how to prepare to re-join the force onscreen — from interviewing real-life officers about their experiences on the force or going on ride-alongs while they’re on duty.
The Oscar and multiple Emmy winner did all that for Darren Aronofsky’s new crime drama “Caught Stealing,” which follows Hank (Austin Butler), a washed-up MLB prospect turned bartender who agrees to watch his drug-dealing neighbor’s cat while he’s out of town and ends up running afoul of two sets of competing gangsters and the police. Because Aronofsky aimed to capture a particular place in time —New York’s Lower East Side on the brink of Y2K — King drilled down on the specifics. To play Detective Elise Roman, a Harlem-bred officer who leads the investigation into Hank’s predicament, she reached out to NYPD veteran Jackie Brown.
“She helped me root the character in something that was real and helped me to create a backstory,” King tells Variety about their dinner conversation. “Based on what her story was, I could determine what Elise’s story wasn’t.”
She explains: “I could pull from Jackie’s actual experience of dealing with the sexism in the police force — especially at that time — and how that could harden you in some way. Luckily, it didn’t harden her, but I chose that it hardened Elise.”
That was the energy King brought to Elise’s introduction in the film, where the detective questions Hank about the gangsters he’s gotten mixed up with. King used the tricks she’d learned from Brown and the officers she’d shadowed for “Southland” and “Watchmen” to make the interrogation scene fizz; in the scene, Elise, wearing her power suit like armor, employs different psychological tactics — alternating between keeping it real, then suddenly going ice cold — in hopes of making Hank crack.
“Hank seems like a really sweet guy, so that is what Austin and Hank have in common. But I, as Elise, felt like, ‘Come on dude, you can’t be that dumb,'” King says, laughing. “So I was leaning into that, and he was probably, for Hank, leaning into just being that dumb. The people that we were playing being polar opposites lent itself to great tension between us in a conversation.”
It’s that kind of nuanced character work that makes King’s performance stand apart amid all the movie’s madness. “Caught Stealing” is a grimy thriller full of high-speed chases with one shady character double-crossing the next, but the story also has a surprisingly sincere heart. At the end of the day, Hank is just a guy who loves his mom and will do anything to protect her (and his neighbor’s cat, Bud).
That element of the plot struck both King and Butler, as they’ve enjoyed particularly close mother-son bonds — King with her son Ian Alexander Jr. and Butler with his mother Lori Butler — and have been marked by grief after their deaths. “Caught Stealing” is one of King’s first acting roles since Alexander died in 2022, so it was a particularly tender time. (She was a month into filming “Shirley,” the Netflix biopic about pioneering politician Shirley Chisholm, when he died; after production resumed, King dedicated her performance and the film to his memory.)
“I did not know that Austin had lost his mother, so he told me maybe within 15 to 20 minutes of us meeting each other,” King recalls. “That just immediately made us have this understanding and sometimes an unspoken moment where he could see that I was being …” She pauses, searching for the best way to describe the feeling: “You just don’t know when that sadness is going to come over you, and I think we were just always very sensitive to that.”
King remembers a moment on set where she felt the need to reach out to Butler. “He’s playing his love for his mother, not having his mother with him, so I was sensitive to that,” she says. “Like me and Ian, he and his mother are best friends, so I really was grateful to have someone that I had so many scenes with understand the depth of the grief that you carry forever.”
There was another moment, too, where Aronofsky asked for a second take of a scene between the pair. “Darren says, ‘OK, let’s do it again. But can you give it to him from a more motherly place?’” King says, keeping the exact interaction vague to protect the plot’s twists and turns. She adds proudly: “I think that is the take that Darren went with when he cut the film.”
As King prepares for “Caught Stealing” to hit theaters this Friday, she’s also launched a new endeavor: a wine label called MianU (pronounced “me and you”). Since Alexander introduced her to orange wines, the brand aims to celebrate his legacy. The first batch of wine sold out online and is available in limited supply in stores and wine bars in California, including King’s hometown of Los Angeles.
“It’s been overwhelming — in a great way,” King says about the consumer response. “My intention is for people to get a bit of understanding of how much joy Ian brings to any space that he’s been in, and how much his spirit continues to do that. I love that people are receiving it the way it was intended.”
The Oscar and multiple Emmy winner did all that for Darren Aronofsky’s new crime drama “Caught Stealing,” which follows Hank (Austin Butler), a washed-up MLB prospect turned bartender who agrees to watch his drug-dealing neighbor’s cat while he’s out of town and ends up running afoul of two sets of competing gangsters and the police. Because Aronofsky aimed to capture a particular place in time —New York’s Lower East Side on the brink of Y2K — King drilled down on the specifics. To play Detective Elise Roman, a Harlem-bred officer who leads the investigation into Hank’s predicament, she reached out to NYPD veteran Jackie Brown.
“She helped me root the character in something that was real and helped me to create a backstory,” King tells Variety about their dinner conversation. “Based on what her story was, I could determine what Elise’s story wasn’t.”
She explains: “I could pull from Jackie’s actual experience of dealing with the sexism in the police force — especially at that time — and how that could harden you in some way. Luckily, it didn’t harden her, but I chose that it hardened Elise.”
That was the energy King brought to Elise’s introduction in the film, where the detective questions Hank about the gangsters he’s gotten mixed up with. King used the tricks she’d learned from Brown and the officers she’d shadowed for “Southland” and “Watchmen” to make the interrogation scene fizz; in the scene, Elise, wearing her power suit like armor, employs different psychological tactics — alternating between keeping it real, then suddenly going ice cold — in hopes of making Hank crack.
“Hank seems like a really sweet guy, so that is what Austin and Hank have in common. But I, as Elise, felt like, ‘Come on dude, you can’t be that dumb,'” King says, laughing. “So I was leaning into that, and he was probably, for Hank, leaning into just being that dumb. The people that we were playing being polar opposites lent itself to great tension between us in a conversation.”
It’s that kind of nuanced character work that makes King’s performance stand apart amid all the movie’s madness. “Caught Stealing” is a grimy thriller full of high-speed chases with one shady character double-crossing the next, but the story also has a surprisingly sincere heart. At the end of the day, Hank is just a guy who loves his mom and will do anything to protect her (and his neighbor’s cat, Bud).
That element of the plot struck both King and Butler, as they’ve enjoyed particularly close mother-son bonds — King with her son Ian Alexander Jr. and Butler with his mother Lori Butler — and have been marked by grief after their deaths. “Caught Stealing” is one of King’s first acting roles since Alexander died in 2022, so it was a particularly tender time. (She was a month into filming “Shirley,” the Netflix biopic about pioneering politician Shirley Chisholm, when he died; after production resumed, King dedicated her performance and the film to his memory.)
“I did not know that Austin had lost his mother, so he told me maybe within 15 to 20 minutes of us meeting each other,” King recalls. “That just immediately made us have this understanding and sometimes an unspoken moment where he could see that I was being …” She pauses, searching for the best way to describe the feeling: “You just don’t know when that sadness is going to come over you, and I think we were just always very sensitive to that.”
King remembers a moment on set where she felt the need to reach out to Butler. “He’s playing his love for his mother, not having his mother with him, so I was sensitive to that,” she says. “Like me and Ian, he and his mother are best friends, so I really was grateful to have someone that I had so many scenes with understand the depth of the grief that you carry forever.”
There was another moment, too, where Aronofsky asked for a second take of a scene between the pair. “Darren says, ‘OK, let’s do it again. But can you give it to him from a more motherly place?’” King says, keeping the exact interaction vague to protect the plot’s twists and turns. She adds proudly: “I think that is the take that Darren went with when he cut the film.”
As King prepares for “Caught Stealing” to hit theaters this Friday, she’s also launched a new endeavor: a wine label called MianU (pronounced “me and you”). Since Alexander introduced her to orange wines, the brand aims to celebrate his legacy. The first batch of wine sold out online and is available in limited supply in stores and wine bars in California, including King’s hometown of Los Angeles.
“It’s been overwhelming — in a great way,” King says about the consumer response. “My intention is for people to get a bit of understanding of how much joy Ian brings to any space that he’s been in, and how much his spirit continues to do that. I love that people are receiving it the way it was intended.”