Austin Butler has opened up about the struggles during his time preparing for the Elvis movie.
The thirty-one-year-old actor revealed he didn’t see his own family for 3 years.
Keep reading to find out more…
Now, Butler might have landed the role of a lifetime, but he started off as a Disney kid…
Butler began his career in television appearing on both Disney Channel and
Nickelodeon.
He fell into the acting business aged thirteen when he was approached by a rep from an acting management company who saw potential in the young star.
They helped him get started in the entertainment industry.
After realizing he had a knack for acting, Butler began taking acting classes.
He started out working as an extra, then moved on to play the role of Lionel Scranton for two seasons on Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide.
2 years later, Butler landed the role of Derek Hanson in Hannah Montana.
After spending most of his early career playing teen heartthrobs, Butler ventured into broadway and film.
He made his Broadway debut in the 2018 show The Iceman Cometh, which critics raved about.
He later took to the big screen to play Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019.
Although he only had minimal screen time, his performance caught everyone’s attention.
Which led to him auditioning for his most recent movie.
Butler had famously starred in the hit movie Elvis.
Which is Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of Elvis Presley, shining a light on his formative years and rise to stardom in the 1950s.
It tells the story of his life from childhood to rock and roll legend.
Touching on his relationship with the important people in his life.
His manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
And his then-wife, Priscilla Presley, and all the ups and downs of his career.
The movie itself had a stellar cast.
Featuring Austin Butler as Elvis Presley, Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker, Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla, and Dacre Montgomery as Steve Binder.
Fans had been raving about Elvis since it first came out.
Twitter had been inundated with posts about the movie, one fan tweeted: “me going back to the cinema for my 9675th watch of the Elvis movie.”
Another echoed: “I go to sleep thinking about the Elvis movie. I wake up thinking about the Elvis movie. Lord have mercy.
“Do you know the things I love about the new #ElvisMovie? The fact it’s done by someone who knows about Elvis, Austin’s incredible portrayal, and that a whole new generation is discovering Elvis for the first time, and seem to be falling in love with him. I find that awesome,” a third wrote.
Despite people raving about his brilliant performance and the incredible 12-minute standing ovation following the movie premiere at the Cannes Film Festival…
Butler went through a lot whilst filming.
The actor opened up about how he fully immersed himself in the character for 6 whole months when filming was postponed due to the pandemic.
It took a lot out of him, admitting that he began to lose touch with who he was.
After production finished, Butler was rushed to the hospital…
“You can lose touch with who you actually are. And I definitely had that when I finished Elvis — not knowing who I was,” he said to GQ. “The next day I woke up at 4 in the morning with excruciating pain, and I was rushed to hospital.”
“My body just started shutting down the day after I finished Elvis,” Austin said.
While he thankfully recovered from the virus, there are many things that stuck with him after filming.
In an interview, Butler shared how grueling the filming experience was, explaining that Baz left him “in tears” the first day in the recording studio.
“When I was on my first day in the recording studio, Baz wanted me to get as close to performing as possible,” Austin told VMAN. “He had all the executives and everybody from RCA, who were back in the offices, he brought them into the recording studio and he goes: ‘I want you all to sit facing Austin’ and he told them to heckle me.”
“So then they were making fun of me and stuff while I was singing,” he added.
He went on: “When we were filming this moment when Elvis first got on stage and he’s getting heckled by the audience, I knew what that felt like. I went home in tears that night. I really did.”
Butler even shared that Leonardo DiCaprio had warned him about Baz, as he had worked alongside him for Romeo & Juliet, and again for The Great Gatsby, so he knew all about the filmmaker’s approach.
“I had spoken to Leo before and he said: ‘Baz is gonna push you in ways you didn’t know somebody could,'” Austin said. “‘He’s gonna push you off balance and keep you off balance.'”
Though the movie became a huge success, and with many even predicting that the actor will be in the running for an Oscar nomination next year, it wasn’t a smooth ride for Butler.
He sat down with Janelle Monáe for Variety’s Actors on Actors series to explain the extreme lengths he went through to perfect his role as Elvis.
Butler revealed he didn’t see his family for 3 years.
“During Elvis, I didn’t see my family for about 3 years,” he admitted.
“Oh no,” Monáe replied.
Butler continued: “I was off in New York prepping with Baz, and then I went to Australia. I had months where I wouldn’t talk to anybody.
“When I did, the only thing I was ever thinking about was Elvis.”
He then said when he did have the opportunity to speak with his family again, he was speaking to them Elvis’ accent.
“I was speaking in his voice the whole time,” Butler said.
The revelation left fans shocked, and many took to Twitter to share their thoughts.
One person commented: “it’s never that serious i promise you. this is so unimpressive to me like,, if you need to do ALL of this then.”
A second added: “method actors are so insufferable… like if u don’t just clock in and out sir.”
A third chimed: “method acting has done irreversible damage to hollywood actors.”
You can see the interview here.
What do you think?