STACK #213 July 2022

FEATURE CINEMA

raised on teen TV shows, progressing to an adult career where he is best known for roles as Manson Family member Tex Watson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Will in fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles . Working opposite Tom Hanks was a treat for Butler. “You don't get a better collaborator than him. He’s not only been a hero of mine for so many years, and I've admired him so much as an actor, he's also one of those people who's been such a part of all of our lives, whether we watched Forrest Gump , or Big , or Cast Away , or Philadelphia , or any one of his films. “He's a master of his

Explaining his inspiration to make Elvis , Luhrmann tells STACK , “There are musical icons in my life that were so important to me. As a young guy, I was an Elvis fan, but I don’t know that fanhood was in any way the reason I wanted to do Elvis . The truth is, that in this modern era, the life of Elvis Presley could not be a better canvas on which to explore America in the ‘50s, the ‘60s and the ‘70s. “I mean it’s a mythical life that he lived, to 42 years. But that 42 years is three great lives put into a short period of time. And what’s extraordinary about it is that that life is culturally at the centre of the ‘50s. and socially the ‘60s, and actually the ‘70s. So that’s what drew me in – that and a guy called Colonel Tom Parker, who I always liked to say was never a Colonel, never Tom and never Parker,” he quips.

Austin Butler as Elvis

of approaching such an extraordinary life. “Also, to see how Baz's process evolved over the course of shooting and editing, and how the story has continually taken new forms and been honed as the process has gone on,” he adds. Working with a dialect coach and a movement coach, Butler took a deep

Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker

craft, and on top of that is warm and welcoming and kind and funny and generous – he made everybody on set

dive into the man who has been immortalised in pop culture for decades. “He has been held up to a superhuman, godlike status. Neither one of those things are very accessible as an actor, and neither one of them embodies the full complexity and nuance of a human being. And so, for me, it

feel at home. He's such a professional and shows up with a humility that allows

He has been held up to a superhuman, godlike status. Neither one of those things are very accessible as an actor

you to collaborate truly. I learned so much from him and he's really a wonderful man and wonderful actor.” When Butler first learned of Luhrmann’s plans to make Elvis , he asked the filmmaker if he might audition for the role by submitting a video of himself playing the piano and singing the popular song Unchained Melody , which Presley had covered in 1977, and which now appears on the film’s soundtrack. Although Harry Styles, Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort were all reportedly in the mix to play Elvis, Butler saw off the competition by spending five months developing the character,

and even periodically workshopping it with Luhrmann. And, needless to say, he was elated when the director called him with the news that he had won the role. “When he told me, I had this surge of joy, and gratitude, and excitement. Followed immediately by, now it's time to get to work,” he recalls. Butler’s extraordinary performance is surely proof that all his hard work paid off.

was how do you find that? It began with endless research and watching every documentary that I could find, watching anything I could find on YouTube, or audio recordings of his interviews. “I listened to every single interview from the `50s to the `70s and read every book that I could get my hands on, and really started to find these keys to his humanity. And find the things in myself that were remarkably similar and things that were seemingly different, and bits of myself that perhaps maybe I'd turned the volume down on that I could then turn the volume up on. It was a joy to get to explore that,” says the former child star who was

Elvis is in cinemas now

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