‘Elvis’ taught star Butler about fear
Austin Butler has taken a bit of flack for sounding too much like Elvis now that he’s no longer Elvis.
The breakout star, 31, of Baz Luhrmann’s biopic even had to be defended by fellow Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, who has explained that she, too, had a hard time shaking the Tina Turner vibe after playing her in 1993.
In any case, Butler says there’s something far more significant that has remained with him since making “Elvis”: a new relationship with fear.
The challenge of playing an icon who has been imitated as often as Presley was so great, he says, that he suffered from impostor syndrome and could have been felled by the fear had he not learned to use it as a “compass.” Now, he says, he asks himself: “What am I terrified of today?” And then he tries to step toward it, rather than away.
Butler, whose Golden Globe shares shelf space with a BAFTA, spoke shortly after his Oscar nod was announced. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: It has been an emotional time for you: winning a Golden Globe, then the tragic death of Lisa Marie Presley, then the Oscar nomination, all within days. Can you describe that journey?
A:
I mean, the peaks are so high, and the valleys have been so low. For each of these moments, I’m just trying to stay as present as I can. … I just wish Lisa Marie were here with us to celebrate. At times, in the midst of intense grief and just a shattering loss, it feels sort of bizarre to celebrate. But I also know how much this film meant to Lisa Marie, how much her father’s legacy meant
to her. So I feel so proud and humble to be a part of that story.
Q: You had to find a way to avoid mimicking a muchmimicked icon. How did you manage that?
A:
It’s so hard to quantify it, and it’s such a tricky thing to talk about without sounding incredibly pretentious … There are certain aspects that even I don’t fully understand. Thankfully I had a long time. I had a year and a half before we started filming, and a large chunk of that time was alone in my apartment … during the pandemic. So it was a lot of just focusing on it every day and trying to get into the life of this man … Even the way that he moved, it all had to come from his spirit, rather than it ever feeling like choreography. … I was very fortunate to be surrounded by amazing
people, my amazing movement coach Polly Bennett and dialect coaches and singing coaches and karate instructors. I had so many people around me that aided me in that process.
Q: Would you say the character has changed you in any permanent way?
A:
Yeah, and in probably more ways than I can even describe or figure out myself. But one of the main things is that it’s altered my relationship with fear, because this was such a daunting undertaking. And there were many moments where I where I felt, you know, where maybe I didn’t believe in myself, I felt impostor syndrome — just a terror that didn’t allow me to sleep for two years. And so now my experience is that when I feel fear like that, I kind of know that it’s not the thing that has to stop you.