Hollywood Stars on Budapest: Food, Crews and Locations
Actors and directors keep coming back to Budapest. When they talk about it, they talk about food, crews, and a city that plays almost anything.
Aug 12, 2026
Florence Pugh's favourite restaurant is a bistro in Buda. Mark Ruffalo's was McDonald's. Between those two extremes, here's what the people who've filmed in Budapest actually say about it.
Florence Pugh: a bistro and a bakery in Buda
In October 2026, Pugh was a guest on TOPJAW, the British food and travel channel. Asked for the best restaurant in the world, she picked Déryné in Buda.
Her reasoning was practical. The bistro and the bakery sit side by side, so you can start the day with a pastry the size of your head, then walk around the corner for lunch. She praised the produce, the meat and the fish. She also mentioned that she knows the restaurant manager, Ákos, by name. She's been there that many times.
Pugh has filmed in Hungary repeatedly: Midsommar in 2018, Black Widow in 2019 and Dune: Part Two in 2022. During Dune, she and Timothée Chalamet went out for goulash and beer and, as she put it later, talked about life.
Mark Ruffalo: McDonald's, every other day
At the other end of the menu: Mark Ruffalo.
Ruffalo and Emma Stone shot Poor Things at Origo Studios in Budapest. On LADbible's Agree to Disagree, they were asked whether eating McDonald's abroad is a must. Stone agreed. Ruffalo went further. He said he ate McDonald's every other day while in Hungary, and brought Stone some as well.
"McDonald's in Hungary is so good," he said. He also had a theory about locally sourced meat that nobody in the room could confirm. We can't either.
What they did agree on: the fries were excellent.
Austin Butler: dragged out of the house
Austin Butler spent his entire Dune: Part Two shoot in Hungary. At the film's New York premiere in February 2024, he told E! News: "It's beautiful!"
He also credited Florence Pugh. Butler admitted he tends to disappear into his roles and stay indoors. Pugh got him out, and they travelled around the country together. He called it a really special experience.
Christopher Walken: the short version
Christopher Walken returned to acting for Dune: Part Two after a four-year break. Asked by Vanity Fair why he said yes, he listed the cast, and the chance to go to Budapest, "which is a beautiful city."
That was the whole review. It was enough.
Viggo Mortensen: the city as a period set
For Good (2008), Budapest doubled for 1930s Berlin. Mortensen explained why it worked: "Budapest looks like the period Berlin more than anywhere else." Much of Berlin's pre-war architecture didn't survive, but much of Budapest's did.
He also singled out the Hungarian crew and the care they put into the work. And he liked the chestnut trees.
Paul Feig: he rewrote the script
The original script for Spy (2015) moved across several European cities. Then Paul Feig went location scouting in Budapest. He realised the city could double for much of what he needed, so he rewrote the script and set most of the film there.
His summary: "Anywhere you point a camera in Budapest, you've got an amazing shot."
He also said that being in Budapest gave the production more access and, in his words, fantastic local crews.
What the quotes have in common
Strip out the restaurants and two things keep coming up.
The locations. Budapest has played Berlin, Paris, Rome and an alien planet. Directors come for one setting and find several.
The crews. Mortensen and Feig both brought up the Hungarian crew without being asked about it. That's not something actors and directors usually volunteer.
And a third thing, less often discussed: what a cast does on a day off. A city where you can walk to a good lunch, or get dragged out on a road trip by a co-star, makes a long shoot easier on everyone.
We service productions in Hungary, from commercials to feature work. If you're considering Budapest for your next shoot, we're here.
Cover Photo by János Venczák on Unsplash