Austin Butler’s performance as Elvis Presley was widely hailed as one of the most impressive of 2022, leading the up-and-comer to a busy go on the awards circuit. He nailed the moves, the demeanor and, most notably to pretty much everyone – even those who didn’t see it – the voice. But as is well documented, Butler just couldn’t shake Elvis’ voice while making the biopic. In fact, he revealed that he had to hire someone to force it out of him to prepare for his next project.
Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, Austin Butler said he “had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis in that film. That was the whole thing.” As it turns out, Austin Butler didn’t have a whole lot of time to make the move from the stage to the skies, as Masters of the Air was launching just one week after Elvis wrapped. While making Elvis, Austin Butler was warned by co-star Tom Hanks (who played Colonel Tom Parker) that he might lose his mind devoting so much time playing Elvis Presley. So to help get out of Elvis mode, Hanks introduced him to Masters of the Air.
As for moving from playing the King of Rock and Roll to Air Force hero Gale Cleven, Butler said, “It was a lot…I was just trying to remember who I was, I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years. And then I had that week off, and then I flew to London and at that time it was Covid, so I’m quarantined for 10 days, so I thought, alright, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.”
But if you’ve seen any of the episodes of Masters of the Air so far, you can tell that Austin Butler hasn’t entirely rid himself of the Elvis voice. But it’s got to be hard; after all, he spent years studying Presley and carried that voice into his numerous acceptance speeches. But by this point, we would have expected him to maybe go at least a little back to his Orange County roots. Judging by his latest endeavor and his appearance on The Late Show, we’re starting to think Elvis just may be haunting Butler…
Austin Butler has a number of promising projects lined up, as this year he will lead Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders and join the Dune sequel.
What do you hope to see from Austin Butler going forward? Let us know!
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