Austin Butler is not the man he used to be. After living and breathing Elvis Presley for the past three years, the 31-year-old actor says taking on the role of the iconic singer in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic, Elvis, has changed not only his life, but him personally.
As the winner of Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama at the 2023 Golden Globes for his role in Elvis, it’s safe to say his performance was nothing short of spectacular. Thanking his family, the Elvis team, and Elvis Presley, “an icon and a rebel”, Butler’s first Golden Globe award was well-deserved.
“Even the days that I wasn’t filming it was there, and it was a part of me and the fabric of who I was,” Butler tells WHO over Zoom.
WATCH: Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’, starring Austin Butler.
Director Baz Luhrmann says that he’s not sure whether he chose you for the role or you chose him, that it was a powerful coming together.
I think that’s a good way of putting it. It came about in such a magical way for me. I got this call that says Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film … So from that day – and I’d never met Baz before – but I thought, “I’m going to treat it like I’ve got the job.” And so I started researching as though I was going to make the movie, and I turned down every audition and said, “I’m only focusing on this one thing.”
I spent weeks at that point just obsessing and researching, and learning little details and trying to find his humanity, really. I eventually sent a video of me singing ‘Unchained Melody’ to Baz and he ended up resonating with that. We worked together from February until July. Almost every day we were reading bits of the script and filming things so, by the time I got the part, we had already been collaborating for quite a long time. It was a really special experience for me to collaborate with him in that way.
Do you think this is a role that will change your career?
I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s one of those things that’s such a responsibility to Elvis and to his family, and to all the people around the world who love him. There was an incredible amount of pressure I felt. And what goes along with that pressure is an immense amount of fear. I would be afraid that I don’t want to fall short and let everybody down.
I don’t want to let myself down, I don’t want to let Elvis down – I want to do him justice. So even on a very personal level, having to push through that every day and use it, use the fear where I’d wake up at 4am every morning with my heart pounding.
I’d just be terrified and I’d go, “OK, use that fear as energy and get to work.” It gave me this drive that I think the person that I am today is different than I was before I started this. I think not only does that shift things in a way that might affect my career, but it shifts me as a human.
What was the most difficult thing when you prepared for the role?
I think the most difficult thing is the fact that you look at Elvis and see these things that are larger than life, this icon or this god-like figure, and then [have to] find your way into the humanity and a way of getting specific that when you watch you feel the essence of Elvis, but where you don’t suddenly become an impression of him or an impersonation of him – where it feels like actual life is happening in the moment.
You were immersed in this character for three years. How hard was it to leave him behind?
It wasn’t easy. I feel incredibly privileged to have had three years of exploring his life and the subtleties of him as a human being, then to also do my best to embody that every day. Even the days that I wasn’t filming, it was there and it was a part of me, the fabric of who I was. I remember the day I wrapped, I went back to my trailer and I started crying. I had this moment where I kept repeating in my mind, “Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?’ I was weeping because I had been living within and with him, and suddenly I was going, “OK, how do I adjust to reality at this point?” So after that it’s just been a process of shedding, in a way. But what a joy to get to explore him for that time.
WATCH: Austin Butler on his Elvis performance
Who was Elvis to you before this movie?
Before starting the process, I considered myself a fan … so getting to explore his humanity and see tons of footage that I’ve never seen before, and hearing audio recordings that I hadn’t even scratched the surface of before, that was huge for me. I didn’t know how funny he was. He was an incredibly funny guy, had such a great sense of humour and one of the best laughs you’ll ever hear. That was something that now is one of my favourite bits of Elvis – hearing him laugh. The other thing was his generosity and how kind he was, how much he gave away.
Was there a specific point in time when you said to yourself, “Oh yeah, I think I’ve got him?”
The first thing we filmed as far as a live performance goes, was the ’68 [Comeback] Special. I was so nervous leading up to that because I’ve been preparing for a long time and now suddenly I’m going to have to walk out there in the black leather and do the ’68 performance, and we’ve got an audience of hundreds of extras and all the cameras are there set up.
The night before and in the morning, I just had these terrible nerves and, before going out, I had this moment with myself where I thought, “This is like Elvis would have been feeling.” This was a make-or-break moment for him in his career and in his life, and there was an incredible amount of pressure on him at that moment for his musical career. I thought it was not dissimilar to the amount of pressure I was feeling. So I took all that energy circulating inside me and I went out.
There was a moment onstage when I suddenly felt this rapport with the audience, where I looked down and saw a girl really blushing, and I see another girl laughing and she’s really laughing. It was so exhilarating. And then at the end they all cheered and, hearing this applause, I thought, “If I close my eyes, this is the same sort of cheer that Elvis would be hearing.” So I allowed my imagination to just really, truly accept that this is the ’68 Special and I’m doing it for this audience right now and my career is on the line, and suddenly it all kind of merged.
I went into the dressing room after and it was silent, and I looked at myself in the mirror and I’m dressed in the leather, I’m covered in sweat, and I looked at myself in the eyes and then I thought, “He would have had this silent moment afterwards, too.” And I just kind of closed my eyes, where suddenly I was like, “Yeah, OK, I can do this.” That was a special, very private moment for me right after this incredibly public moment.
Elvis hits cinemas on June 23.
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