You can’t say Austin Butler doesn’t commit to his acting roles!
First, he went all in on recreating Elvis Presley’s southern Memphis accent for the Oscar-nominated film Elvis, and now he’s opening up about the “awful” things he did to gain weight for the movie, too!
In a new interview on Variety’s Awards Circuit podcast out on Friday, the 31-year-old actor revealed he took a page out of Ryan Gosling’s book to earn the coveted role of the rock ‘n roll legend in Baz Luhrmann’s film.
After being in talks to play The King for quite some time, Austin recalled how his agent called him up and encouraged him to gain weight since the filmmakers weren’t convinced he could play the older version of the Jailhouse Rock crooner yet. He shared:
“, ‘They don’t know that you can play older Elvis, so I think you gotta gain some weight.’ I’d heard that Ryan Gosling when he was gonna do Lovely Bones had microwaved Häagen-Dazs and would drink it, so I started doing that.”
OMG! Microwaved ice cream?? Why not just make a milkshake? LOLz! It’s not the only sweet food he started feasting on either, the Dune 2 star continued:
“I would go get two dozen doughnuts and eat them all. I really started to pack on some pounds.”
Ultimately, it wasn’t for him, he noted:
“It’s fun for a week or so, and then you feel awful with yourself.”
In the movie, he wore a body adjustment suit to play the role, partly because they did not film in chronological order. But, as we all know, this wasn’t the only way he committed to the role. He also spoke and sang in Elvis’ voice so much, he “probably damaged” his vocal cords! On an episode of The Graham Norton Show, he dished after lots of controversy over his voice:
“I am getting rid of the accent, but I have probably damaged my vocal cords with all that singing. One song took 40 takes.”
Throughout the awards season, Austin’s been roasted online for continuing to speak like the musician, though the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood star said it’s not happening on purpose. While behind the scenes at the Golden Globes, he told the press:
“I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I must because I hear it a lot. I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time, and I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”
Blaming it on his DNA might be a bit of a stretch, but we get what he was trying to say!
His voice coach, Irene Bartlett, also thinks some of his Elvis impression will remain “forever” and insisted Austin’s manner of speaking these days is “genuine” and “not put on.” She told ABC Gold Coast:
“It’s difficult to switch off something you’ve spent so much focus time on.”
While most of the internet is sick of the twang, he does have some supporters who don’t think he’s lying about his changed voice. Angela Bassett, who played Tina Turner in the 1993 film What’s Love Got To Do With It, faced a similar predicament. She told the New Yorker:
“Tina’s laugh and the way she spoke took over … maybe about four months after. It takes a moment to get back to regular you.”
After years of focusing on nothing but Elvis, it’s not hard to see why it’s hard to shake off the accent! Hear him discuss the filmmaking process lots more (below)!
Reactions, Perezcious readers? Would you drink melted ice cream?!
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