Spoilers for Caught Stealing are ahead! Read with caution, and see this 2025 movie schedule entry in theaters now.
I don’t know about you, but the second I walked out of my screening for Caught Stealing, the first thing I wanted to know was: “Did Austin Butler really shave his hair into a mohawk for the final scene?” Well, now the Oscar-nominated actor has addressed that, while also sharing his thoughts on what it was like to go through this hair transformation as production wrapped on this book-to-screen adaptation of Charlie Huston’s novel.
Now, the reason why I wanted to know if Austin Butler really shaved his head was because for a single scene in the film, he had a botched mohawk as he pretended to be Matt Smith’s mohawk-rocking, punk rock neighbor, Russ. Butler’s character, Hank, had to steal Russ's identity and look because he was escaping New York after the disastrous events he found himself in, and he needed to pretend to be someone else.
So, he shaved his hair into a mohawk, rocked all the leather and studded clothing he could find, grabbed his cat, and put on a fake British accent. It’s a jarring look, but a necessary one for him to get out of the States. Butler really committed to it too, as he told EW the following about shaving his head:
It was liberating. At first, I felt reticence toward shaving my head into a mohawk because I had no idea what it would look like and my own feelings around what that was going to be.
It is a very dramatic change that Butler would have to deal with. While he was working on Dune: Part 2, he wore a bald cap to play Feyd-Rautha, which wasn’t “glamorous” considering the heat. However, it also wasn’t permanent. What he did for Caught Stealing was, in a sense, because he couldn’t just go back to his normal hair. He had to live it really short for a while.
However, the Elvis actor ended up really loving it, as he said:
I didn't know what that was going to feel like, but once I shaved it, it was incredibly liberating. When you shave your head for the first time, the physical feeling of the hair follicle is an amazing sensation.
Honestly, after all the intensity that is Caught Stealing, I bet it was freeing to totally change his look and close out this chapter that way. He confirmed that too, as he explained how he and the film’s director, Darren Aronofsky, celebrated the end of production:
I shaved it all off, and Darren and I jumped in the ocean in Tulum. It was a symbolic way of ending. We floated in the ocean for a couple of hours.
This is such a fun way to end a production and close out a big chapter. Caught Stealing is an action-packed movie that was physically demanding. Butler went through the wringer and got injured making it, and getting to close it out in a tropical location with a new haircut feels like the breath of fresh air that was probably needed.
So, to bring it all back around to the question, yes, Austin Butler did shave his head for this movie.
Overall, the Caught Stealing’s reviews have been solid, with critics specifically praising Butler’s performance. He really committed to the role, and even shaved his hair for it, and you can see all that hard work and hair transformation on the big screen now.
