Austin Butler Got Roasted for Talking Like Elvis at the Golden Globes
Austin Butler won a Golden Globe on Tuesday night for his transformative performance in Baz Lurhmann's Elvis. And as soon became apparent while Butler was accepting the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama), it's a transformation that he has yet to fully shake off. Viewers of the awards ceremony couldn't help but notice while Butler was on-stage that, after spending two years embodying the King of Rock and Roll for the movie, he is still speaking like Elvis Presley, with a low, raspy voice and Southern accent.
"I didn't even think about it," Butler told People after his speech. "I don't think I sound like him still, but I guess I must, because I hear it all the time... I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time. I had three years where that was my only focus, so I'm sure there's pieces of him in my DNA and I will always be linked to him."
In a 2022 interview with ELLE Australia, Butler reflected on the changes to his speaking voice since filming Elvis, likening it to a stage persona, and teasing that he may well end up absorbing elements of different characters from future roles too.
"Because I'm a shy person, and when I know that there's bits of Elvis that I'd have to click into in order to go out on stage and be in front of a ton of people, being surrounded by his name everywhere, there's triggers," he said. "You spend so much time obsessing about one thing, and it really is like muscular habits, your mouth can change. Its pretty amazing. I know that I'm constantly changing. Check in with me in 20 years when I've played a lot of roles, who knows what I'll sound like!"
Butler's next major role is as the villain Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in auteur Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two, and we can't wait to hear from him on that press tour.
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