Austin Butler’s transformation is full. The actor has spent the final a number of years immersed in every part Elvis Presley main as much as the discharge of the Baz Luhrmann-directed biopic on June 24. Because the press tour ramps up, questions swirl round Butler’s enduring dedication to the position — particularly, his continued use of the late rock icon’s distinctive accent.
In a June 14 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Butler addressed his tendency to slide into Elvis’s accent, and it looks as if one thing he cannot management. “At this level, I maintain asking folks, ‘Is that this my voice?’ as a result of this looks like my actual. . .It is a type of issues the place sure issues set off it,” Butler stated. “Once you reside with one thing for 2 years and also you do nothing else, I feel which you could’t assist it. It turns into a fiber of your being.”
The accent was particularly obvious on the Met Gala. Butler attended the occasion with Priscilla Presley. In a pink carpet interview with La La Anthony for Vogue, the accent was noticeable. His usually deep voice this time bore a torpid Southern drawl, which is uncommon for Butler, who was born and raised in Southern California, removed from Presley’s Memphis. Upon additional investigation, the accent can also be current in different interviews after Butler was forged in “Elvis,” together with on the “As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood” premiere in 2019.
Butler hasn’t but said if he took a technique method to the position, an all-consuming approach beforehand utilized by Daniel Day-Lewis, Hilary Swank, and Jared Leto, amongst others. Butler did, nonetheless, isolate himself throughout a pause in manufacturing as a result of pandemic and turned his residence right into a type of Presley temple with partitions of pictures. “Except I immerse as a lot as I presumably can, I’ll really feel like a fraud,” he recalled considering within the Might 2022 problem of Vogue.
Luhrmann implied the accent was all the time there, lurking beneath the floor. The director informed Vogue, “From the second I met Austin, he was carrying one thing of Elvis with him. He had a touch of the swagger, a contact of the sound.” Tom Hanks, however, nervous Butler and Presley might develop into too entwined. (Hanks portrays Presley supervisor Colonel Tom Parker within the movie.) “Making a movie, particularly this one, is an all-in, relentless marathon. The physique and psyche tackle a heavy burden,” he stated. “An actor’s soul advantages from some every day detour.”
“I got down to make my voice equivalent to his.”
Along with nailing Presley’s talking voice, Butler additionally needed to handle singing (sure, that is actually him singing all through the movie). To organize, Butler did vocal teaching almost seven days per week for a 12 months earlier than filming started. “After I started the method of this I got down to make my voice equivalent to his,” he informed The AU Review. “That was my aim, that in the event you heard a recording of him and heard a recording of me, you would not be capable to inform the distinction.”
Vanessa Hudgens, who dated Butler for eight years, stated he was born to play the position. In a 2019 “Live With Kelly and Ryan” look, Hudgens stated she first realized the resemblance when Butler sang alongside to a Presley Christmas track on a drive at some point. She informed him, “I do not know, however we have to determine how one can play Elvis. I do not know find out how to get rights or what we do, however you might want to play him. It’s your calling.” The next month, Butler discovered Luhrmann was engaged on a biopic. Hudgens added, “It’s important to watch out with what you say, as a result of issues occur.”
