Austin Butler is making waves in Hollywood, with his powerful portrayal of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis shaking up critics and fans alike. Butler worked hard in the entertainment industry for years before landing his big break as Elvis, including acting in a number of Disney Channel productions and teen dramas. In fact, as Butler revealed in a recent Actor’s Roundtable, he was at an impasse in his life, unsure of his next move, when he heard about Luhrmann’s production. Butler, with the assistance of a supportive friend, knew that he had to put everything on the line for a chance to play the rock icon.
How did Austin Butler find out about the ‘Elvis’ movie?
In a recent Actor’s Roundtable event, Butler recounted how he first heard about Luhrmann’s project, revealing how a friend helped him realize he needed to go after the opportunity. “The month before I heard Baz was making the movie, I was going to look at Christmas lights… and there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio,” Butler said. “I was with a friend of mine, and I was singing along, and my friend kind of looked over at me and goes, ‘You gotta play Elvis.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, that’s such a long shot.’”
Butler went on to describe how “a couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano and (my friend) said, ‘I’m serious, you got to figure out how you can get the rights to a script and write something and do Elvis’s life.’” Butler smiled when he remembered how, “A couple days after that, my agent called and said, ‘So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film,’ and the hairs just stood up on my arms.”
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Diving deep to prepare to play Elvis Presley
The rest, as they say, is history. Butler campaigned for the part of Elvis Presley, impressing Luhrmann with his inner vulnerability and natural talent. Reportedly, Butler beat out stars like Harry Styles and Miles Teller for the role. Butler got right to work after he landed the part, immersing himself into Presley’s life and legacy in order to accurately portray the star. Butler would later detail how he “was only reading everything to do with Elvis. I was only listening to Elvis. It was Elvis’s influences and Elvis himself and nothing else.”
He mastered Presley’s accent and worked with a movement coach in order to sound and move like the King of Rock and Roll. In fact, Butler was so deep in the process that his body “turned on him” after the shooting wrapped. The young star was rushed to the hospital the day after filming wrapped, with Butler noting that he was very ill with a virus due to having not rested at all for the previous two years.
Austin Butler recently won the Golden Globe for his work in ‘Elvis’
All of Butler’s hard work paid off in the end. When Elvis was released in June 2022, fans lined up in droves to see the film, praising how well Butler captured the essence of Presley. Critics praised the film as well, and with the movie (and Butler) racking up award nominations left and right, it seems likely that Elvis will remain in the headlines for weeks to come. Most recently, Butler walked away with the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his work in Elvis. As Hollywood’s newest big star, Butler has proven himself to be a force to be reckoned with.
