How Austin Butler Got Shredded for Enemies, According to His Trainer
Austin Butler might currently be promoting his film Caught Stealing, but his next project, Enemies, is coming up quick. There’s practically zero information online about the 2026 film other than the fact that it stars Butler and Jeremy Allen White as “a relentless detective and an infamous contract killer” who face off in a “deadly game of cat and mouse.” We do, however, know now that the Dune 2 star got absolutely ripped for his role, courtesy of some behind-the-scenes photos from his Los Angeles–based trainer, Roy Chan.
Working with Chan, Butler had 14 weeks to go from playing an alcoholic ex-baseball player in Caught Stealing, a film that required him to put on at least 30 pounds, to someone cut and lean for Enemies. Butler, of course, is no stranger to dramatically transforming himself for a role (his Elvis twang may never leave the building), and his physique has been on display before (you might recall his ghostly white abs in Dune 2 and bulging biceps in The Bikeriders).
Chan, the founder of the private personal-training service Roydian, was the exact person Butler needed for his film preparation. He helped pioneer the Roydian method, a “discipline and a lifestyle […] combining clean movement mechanics, functional training with mindful nutrition, and rest and regeneration to support health and longevity.” It was a good fit for Butler, who has put such intensive work into roles that he’s left a few sets worse for wear, having been hospitalized after Elvis and going temporarily blind shooting The Bikeriders.
Chan’s goal for training Butler was to ensure that the actor not only looked good, but would be able to maintain his figure for the long run without any health setbacks. It’s the same reason why Chan decided to start the Roydian method in the first place, and why it has been beneficial for so many of his high-profile clientele, including Daniel Wu, Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, and our very own culture columnist Chris Black.
The trainer, who studied health and kinesiology, has “injured [himself] in every way” and decided that traditional bodybuilding was no longer a sustainable option. Thus, the Roydian method was born. It combines the “mobility of yoga with the conditioning of HIIT workouts, and the sculpting of bodybuilding and Pilates.”
Here’s how Chan got Butler into shape for his upcoming film, and why this method of training can work for anyone—not just Hollywood’s finest.
GQ: When did you first meet Austin?
Roy Chan: Austin and I met two years ago at dinner in New York. We were with a bunch of friends, and we had just met. What struck me the most about him was how he makes an impression on you the minute you meet him. He’s very, very genuine. He’s really present. I don’t think we even checked our phone once, and it was a three-hour dinner. We sat beside each other and talked the whole time. We talked a lot about our personal life and upbringing, and honestly, work didn’t even really come up. It was really refreshing to have that type of conversation. So we hit it off and we’ve maintained contact since.
What was he looking for in terms of working out with you?
During that time, he was still working on Caught Stealing. He had his own team he was working with. He put on like 30 to 35 pounds to have this alcoholic ex-baseball player body, and baseball players have really big upper bodies. I think what he went through to get to that transformation was a lot of work and they did a good job with that. But then when we reconnected after that role, I think he just wanted to do a reset on the way he approached his training. We decided that we wanted to continue elevating his fitness and help him stay fit without sacrificing his health and well-being. Sometimes there are ways you can approach fitness that may not be sustainable, but that’s more for the short-term and can leave your body not feeling the greatest. I think he really wanted to do something that was more longevity based, and he knew that I was someone who preached a more holistic way of fitness.
In the past, Butler was hospitalized when he was filming Elvis and then he went blind doing The Bikeriders. How did you tailor his workout regimen for him to get ready for Enemies?
Our philosophy is based on clean moving mechanics. We’re not loading you with movements if your foundation isn’t there. So there are three pillars of the Roydian method: fitness, nutrition, recovery. The nutrition part plays a really huge role. We approached his nutrition with an 80/20 rule, where 80% of the time we stay pretty committed with fitness, nutrition, and recovery. But 20% of the time, you should enjoy your life. So let’s say you average three meals a day, that’s about 20 meals a week. If you stick to eating well for 16 of those meals, there’s room for you to have a little of whatever to enjoy your life. Because what’s the point of doing all of this? If we can’t enjoy our lives? Just don’t eat like an asshole. You can have a slice of pizza but you don’t need to smash four boxes of pizza.
What was Austin eating during this time?
It’s really just whole foods based. Once he had that locked in, he just chose the foods that he enjoyed. I feel like a lot of people in this industry make the mistake of telling people that they need to eat chicken, broccoli, and rice. Every program needs to be customized and personalized. So for us, we would talk about: What did you grow up eating? Because that has a lot to do with how he would digest certain foods. Austin loves, loves, loves sweet potatoes. Which is great for us because it’s such a nutritious vegetable that can be our starch element. But he has a very diverse diet. That’s just one of the things. He loves his proteins, he likes his food.
What was his recovery like?
The goal of recovery is two things. The one thing is, in a high-strung life that we all live in, where our nervous system is jacked, recovery is about doing things that calm your nervous system, to bring your heart rate back down, and stimulate your parasympathetic system, which is responsible for rest and digestion. So we implemented recovery workouts. We train every day, but not every workout is going hard and breaking you down. Some days you might not have enough sleep. Some days you might have hopped off a flight. Some days you might be feeling a little bit under the weather. So the workout needs to be regenerative, maybe a little bit more mobility based, a little less on the conditioning side, and a little bit more like foam-rolling and self myofascial release, which releases some of the tension that builds up in the body as you work out. What people have to understand about the other part of recovery is maximizing sleep quality. So there were a lot of things we worked on for sleep hygiene: making sure it’s the right temperature in the room, making sure there are minimal electronics in the room, anything that can distract you.
I read that Austin usually has trouble sleeping and that after night shoots for Enemies, he would go on the treadmill and do contrast therapy to help him sleep. Did you help him come up with that?
Yeah, totally. We knew that he was going to do these night shoots. We knew that his circadian rhythm was going to be out of whack. We knew that it was going to be hard work, and we wanted to set him up with the right tools so that he didn’t take one step forward and two steps back in terms of his physique. And having simple recovery routines like gentle treadmill walking that doesn’t take too much skill and complexity combined with a nice little zen sauna was the best way to bring his stress levels back down to sleep.
It sounds like he was pretty nocturnal while shooting for Enemies.
I remember catching up with him, and he’s just like “Yeah, [the cast and crew] live at night like vampires, and they train in the nighttime. And when the sun’s up, they’re asleep.” They’ll go days without even seeing the sun, so it’s pretty crazy.
You said you were working out with him every day. What was his weekly split like?
We don’t really follow traditional splits. One thing that makes the Roydian method different is what we consider our [key performance indicator]. The typical idea of progression is how much more weight can one lift, how much more mileage can one run, how much faster you can run. And I don’t think that’s the right approach. We measure how consistently you can train for 52 weeks indefinitely. So our style of training is so you don’t get overly sore the next day. So by blending in mobility, strength, and conditioning we ensure that you can go again the next day. That approach has proven more sustainable and more effective for transformations. Because if you think about it that way, if you can train six days a week and do that for 50 weeks of the year, that’s 300 workouts. Compared to someone who trains really hard three days a week because in between they’re recovering, because they’re too sore—that’s 150 workouts. So if you follow a more sustainable, moderate approach to full-body training, and undulate that program properly with periods of heavy work, light work, and medium work, you end up doing more work throughout the year and not get injured doing it.
