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Austin Butler and Miles Teller’s Dynamic ‘Similar’ to Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt: ‘Not Friends’
Austin Butler and Miles Teller are being dubbed the new Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise of their generation – but just like their illustrious predecessors, there’s a ton of rivalry and festering resentment as they compete for the biggest roles.
“Elvis was Miles’ dream role and everybody on that project said he came incredibly close to getting that part,” an insider exclusively tells Life & Style. “He was literally in the final two or final three group of candidates, and he was devastated at losing the role, especially since he was coming off of shooting Top Gun Maverick in the summer of 2019.”
Austin, 32, and Miles, 37, were famously considered for each other’s blockbuster roles. Austin was in the running for the role of Rooster in the Tom Cruise-led film Top Gun: Maverick, while Miles was considered for the role of Elvis in the film of the same name. Both movies were released in the summer of 2022.
“[Miles] was especially proud of the shape he got into for that movie and his hell-raising barroom musical sequence in the middle of the film,” the insider continues. “He was perfectly prepared to play Elvis next.”
The Allegiant star was “devasted” to lose the role to a “person nobody really heard of” and only continued to feel “further disappointment” when the COVID-19 pandemic shelved Top Gun: Maverick’s release for two full years.
“He’d just done a career defining role and nobody in Hollywood would see it for years? It was a very tough pill for Miles to swallow and he still says he would have done something incredible with Elvis,” the source explains. “Obviously, he has avoided watching what Austin did in the finished movie but these guys are not friends and have almost no mutuals.”
The source noted the dynamic between Austin and Miles was “similar” to that of heartthrobs Tom and Brad in the 1990s.
“Leading up to them costarring in Interview With a Vampire and it’s funny because Tom has been a mentor to Miles and Brad has worked with and cheered on Austin,” the insider concluded.
The A-list actors appeared to clash on the set of their 1994 horror film, where the Troy star, 60, famously admitted he was “miserable.”
“He bugged me. There came a point during filming when I started really resenting him. He’s North Pole, I’m South,” Brad said in an interview about his costar via Your Tango. “He’s always coming at you with a handshake, whereas I may bump into you. There was this underlying competition that got in the way of any real conversation.”
The drama continued in 2009 when Tom, 61, and Brad both starred in World War II dramas, Valkyrie and Inglourious Basterds. While promoting Inglourious Basterds, Brad allegedly criticized Tom, calling it “a ridiculous movie.”
“Tom was the biggest A-list name of the ’80s and Brad of the ’90s,” a source told the National Enquirer in February 2019. “They’ve traded plenty of barbs in the past, but this could be a real showdown!”
