Austin Butler made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week (Jan. 9), and opened about his two-year journey of getting Elvis’ every note, mannerism, and moves exactly right for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, “I would usually wake up every day around 3 or 4 in the morning with this terror. It was just such a daunting thing. I really was just guided by my terror.” he revealed.
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Unfortunately, the filming for Elvis came to a halt for much of 2020 after co-star Tom Hanks tested positive for COVID-19, this led Austin feeling worried about ‘losing all the progress he’d made with the character.’ “I’d walk down the beach for hours with a headphone in, laughing as Elvis, so it looked like [I was] this man, just absolutely out of his mind,” he told Jimmy.
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In a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Austin shared what it was like meeting Elvis’ daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, once filming had wrapped, “She hugged me with tears in her eyes, and she just said, ‘Thank you.’ She took me upstairs and we went into Elvis’ bedroom and just sat on his bed and just talked for hours.”
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“When you realize that he’s this guy that has been either thought of as this icon, godlike figure, or people just see him as this Halloween costume. Then it dawns on you that he’s a father, and he’s a son and he’s a husband. That responsibility is so huge,” he continued.
On the Actor #THRRoundtable, #ElvisMovie star Austin Butler describes the emotional moment he shared in Elvis's bedroom with Lisa Marie Presley pic.twitter.com/XZXFSsDCQX
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 10, 2023