How Austin Butler Got Rid of His Elvis Accent for Tom Hanks’ Masters of the Air With Extreme Difficulty
Emulating a huge sensation on screen is not easy. Despite many actors stepping into the shoes of Elvis in the past, Austin Butler got a new charm to the role. The singer remains one of the most popular celebrities to date. Churning out snappy melodies out of thin air while singing the songs to perfection, Elvis was loved by fans across the world. Butler played the titular role in the singer’s biographical movie in the 2022 eponymous movie.
Austin Butler’s Preparation for Elvis
Donning the shining suits and wearing an iconic wig is not enough to become Elvis on screen. Austin Butler had to change his accent, perfect his pitch and learn the minor mannerisms that made the musical sensation who he was. Moreover, given Butler’s rise to fame, he had more projects lined up that demanded his attention and time too.
Recently, Butler revealed that after filming Elvis, he was to start shooting for his next movie Masters of the Air in just a week’s time. While appearing on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Butler talked about his intense preparation to see the world through the singer’s eyes and the effort he had to put in to let those mannerisms go. After three years of research and dedicated work into Elvis’ life, Butler had to unlearn all of it to become another character on screen. A dialect coach helped him correct his accent and voice after filming ended.
“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 was quarantined for 10 days. I thought, ‘Alright, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.’”
On the other hand, Masters of the Air was set in a completely different genre with war and violence whereas Elvis was all about romance and music. Butler bagged the Golden Globe for his role in Elvis and confronted the fact that people believe he still sounds a lot like the singer. “I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way,” he added.
Actors Who Have Played Elvis
There can never be another king of rock and roll like Elvis Presley but there are numerous actors who have portrayed the singer’s life on screen. A biographical movie needs a lot of work since the celebrity has to be perfectly emulated for the audience to believe in the narrative. From Kurt Russell playing Elvis in 1979, Val Kilmer in 1993, Michael Shannon in 2013 to finally Austin Butler in 2022, actors across generations have tried their hand at acting like the singer and added their own charisma to the role.
The next Elvis impersonation was done in Sofia Coppola’s retelling of his wife’s story, Priscilla, by Jacob Elordi. The movie follows the couple’s complicated relationship interspersed with Elvis’ musical journey and its subsequent impact on their relationship.
