Austin Butler’s TV interview on The Project goes viral overseas

Actor Austin Butler’s encounter with The Project host Sarah Harris has racked up millions of views worldwide, for one reason.

Austin Butler has helped Australian TV go viral thanks to his deeply charismatic interview on Channel 10.

Millions of people have watched a segment from the Hollywood star’s The Project interview on Monday, which was conducted by Sarah Harris.

Butler – who won a Golden Globe for his acclaimed portrayal of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic – sat down to talk about his new movie The Bikeriders, where he instantly made Harris “nervous” with his innate charm.

Kicking off the interview on a personal note, Harris told Butler he had a “very piercing gaze.”

Austin Butler and his piercing gaze sat down with The Project.

Host Sarah Harris struggled to compose herself.

“You do this thing where you look into people’s souls... I’m getting it now,” Harris told the big screen star, prompting him to subtly up the ante further on said gaze.

“Yeah? … You have a piercing gaze too,” he responded, locking eyes with Harris.

A flustered Harris replied, “All right, you’re making me nervous now.”

Fans declared of the clip, “He needs to be locked up.”

A clip of their exchange, posted on X, has since gone viral among international fans, clocking up almost nine million views as of Friday.

“He needs to be locked up,” the cheeky caption read.

Another viral tweet sharing the clip stated, “He needs to be stopped.”

While Marvel star Tom Holland was dubbed the king of ‘rizz’ last year – a Gen Z slang word for charisma – one user noted how, only now after watching Butler’s interview, he truly understood the meaning of it.

“I wasn’t 100% sure what this thing the kids are calling “the rizz” is until I saw this clip,” they wrote.

“Top level rizz on display,” another wrote.

“Hide your girlfriends,” a third added.

“She [Harris] was struggling to stay composed,” a fourth said, with another adding, “I just know she was sweating.”

Another claimed they’d worked with Butler several times, confirming, “he’s really like this irl [in real life] it’s insane.”

Butler is promoting his new film The Bikeriders. Picture: Jason Mendez/Getty Images

Butler, 32, has been working in showbiz for years, getting his start on childrens networks Disney Channel and Nickelodeon back in 2006.

But it wasn’t until his role in the Oscar-nominated Elvis which saw his star really explode.

Aussie director Luhrmann took a gamble on a then relatively-unknown Butler for the role of a lifetime, telling news.com.au back in 2021 he clocked his star power instantly during the audition process.

“Austin Butler, I think he’s really going to surprise people,” Luhrmann forecasted ahead of the movie’s release.