Deadline is reporting that actor Alex Pettyfer, who can next be seen in Magic Mike, will be joining Lee Daniels‘ upcoming film The Butler. He’ll be taking on the role of Thomas Westphall and he’ll join an already stellar cast that includes Forest Whitaker, David Oyelowo, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Oprah Winfrey, Minka Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr, Terrance Howard, and Lenny Kravitz.
Not much is known about Pettyfer’s character aside from the fact that he’ll “appear early in the life of Forest Whitaker’s character and has a pivotal influence on the rest of that character’s life.” It’s pretty vague but it definitely sounds like the character will be of some importance.
While I’ve never been a fan of Pettyfer as an actor, despite him trying quite hard to make it big with potential franchise starters like I Am Number Four and Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, I do think he’s finally starting to hit his stride. I recently saw him in Magic Mike and was rather impressed with his performance.
It’s nice to see him taking on more serious, dramatic roles with his recent film choices and I am definitely looking forward to seeing more work from the young actor.
As an added bit of trivia, Pettyfer was actually supposed to star in Daniels’ last film, The Paperboy, but turned down the part.
