Julia Butters Leaves 'American Housewife,' Anna-Kat Role Recast

A major cast shakeup is rocking American Housewife. Julia Butters, the young breakout star who played Anna-Kat Otto, is exiting the ABC sitcom after four seasons. Per a Deadline report, the 11-year-old actress is "leaving the show to pursue other opportunities." The role, the youngest child of leading couple Kate (Katy Mixon) and Greg (Diedrich Bader) Otto, has already been recast. Giselle Eisenberg, best known for the CBS sitcom Life in Pieces, will take over as Anna-Kat.

Butters' "other opportunities" stem from her acclaimed role in director Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood. Butters played a minor role as Trudi Fraser, a child actor who has a deep on-set conversation with Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio). Tarantino discovered her through an American Housewife episode.

"I was telling a scary story to other kids on American Housewife. It was called "Bloody Becky," and it was about a witch who would come out of the mirror and grab them and eat their faces off if they didn't give [my character] all their candy," Butters told The Hollywood Reporter in November 2019. "I auditioned once, and then I had a callback. Then he just invited me and my mom over to his office. I was so nervous. I was thinking my heart could be broken at any moment. And he told me that he'd like me to play Trudi Fraser in his movie! I was totally in shock. I didn't know what to say."

While the Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood role was small, it had a lasting impact and has put Butters' career on a new path. "Butters earned acclaim and landed a slew of nominations for her role in the movie, which opened a lot of doors for her," Deadline's Nellie Andreeva wrote. "The young actress and her team wanted to pursue them and the studio behind American Housewife, ABC Signature, granted her request to leave the series."

Eisenberg, too, has an on-screen history with DiCaprio. She played the daughter of Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) and Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) in The Wolf of Wall Street. She's also appeared in A Most Violent Year, Flesh and Bone, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Believe and Danny Collins. In Life in Pieces, she played the role of Sophia Hughes for 79 episodes.

American Housewife's first four seasons are currently streaming on Hulu. Season 5 will premiere on Oct. 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET. This season premiere will presumably serve as Eisenberg's debut.