“I really owe her a lot this time”: Elvis Star Austin Butler Owes Ex-Girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens After Winning Best Actor Alongside Brendan Fraser
American actor Austin Robert Butler has become one of the most well-known actors in the world now after having Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (2022) under his belt. The actor has received much praise for his performance as Elvis Presley in a movie based on the Hollywood legend’s life. With the success of his film Elvis, his career just got wings as he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor Drama category and earned his first Oscar nomination in 2023.
Austin Butler gave a heartfelt speech at Golden Globe Awards 2023 for his achievement. In an interview, he mentioned a friend who encouraged him to play the iconic role that eventually brought him success. According to reports, the actor has come forward to claim that his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens was that friend who believed in him and credited her for his success for Elvis (2022).
Austin Butler Credits Ex-Girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens For Encouraging Him
It is a fact that hard work will always pay off when the right time comes, and that is exactly what happened to Austin Butler, 31, who played the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, in the Baz Luhrmann biopic on the Hollywood legend. For his movie Elvis’s success, he also gave credit to his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens, as he bagged an Oscar nomination for the Best Actor title.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Butler expressed his feelings about walking on the road to success. While his hard work and outstanding performance contributed to the success of this film, he admitted that Hudgens was the one who believed in him in the first place and that he should take on this iconic role in the movie Elvis (2022).
Butler said,
“I was with my partner at the time. We’d been together for so long, and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment, so I really owe her a lot for believing in me.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 31-year-old actor initially said that a ‘friend‘ had encouraged him to consider the role of legend. Still, he admitted exactly who that friend was and how that push turned his life around. The 34-year-old Hudgens and Butler began dating in 2011 for nearly a decade before calling it to quit in 2020.
A First Oscar Nomination Is Like A Dream Come True For Austin Butler!
Butler’s career as an actor in television and film spans many years. Throughout 2016 and 2017, he appeared in 20 episodes of The Shannara Chronicles, which launched him to stardom. Nevertheless, Elvis (2022) was the most significant opportunity that brought him recognition and awards. After winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in the Motion Picture Drama category, Butler secured a nomination in Oscar 2023 for the Best Actor Title for a legend’s biopic.
Butler was nominated for Golden Globe Award alongside another Hollywood legend Brendan Fraser who was the highly anticipated name for the Best Actor title for his movie The Whale. However, Butler turned the situation and bagged his title as Best Actor for Elvis, and Fraser lost it.
Along with Austin Butler, Brendan Fraser for The Whale, Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin, Paul Mescal for Aftersun, and Bill Nighy for Living, were nominated for the Best Actor title in Oscar 2023. The movie Elvis (2022) is nominated for Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Picture.
Source: Los Angeles Times
