GIVING CREDIT
Saluting the behind-the-scenes talent making movie magic.
Elvis’ movement coach on perfecting Austin Butler’s electrifying gyrations.
Brit Polly Bennett helped coach Rami Malek to an Oscar-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody and her excellent work with Austin Butler can be seen in Elvis. She tells Buff how she teaches performers to walk like a horse and scream with complete abandon.
How did you get involved in coaching Austin Butler to be Elvis?
I got asked by a couple of actors who were auditioning for Elvis – the only person that didn’t ask me was Austin [laughs]. It was actually once he got the role – he made a request, because he’d seen Rami Malek talk about the work that I had done with him on Bohemian Rhapsody.
How did you work with him to get Elvis’ movements?
Every day, we had our own rehearsal schedule. The work that I do is to try to find out why movements happen. It’s history. It’s heritage. Always, what I was saying to Austin, is that you have to turn it into something practical. There’s nothing playable in just copying. A lot of our first week together, we walked. And, of course, Austin was chomping at the bit to get onto the stage. And it was the same with Rami – he really wanted to learn Live Aid. And I was like, “There’s no point doing those things because they’re a spontaneous thing to happen.” They need to understand everything that he is, leading up to that moment.
How did you get started?
I was a dancer, and then I started acting. I joined the National Youth Theatre when I was 15. I got into drama school, and knew it wasn’t quite the right thing for me so I went off to Edinburgh University, and did Art History. I choreographed at university, and that took me into working in TV production, where
I was working on an advert as a production assistant. The model that they were using couldn’t walk in time to music so I spoke to her, and found out that she likes horseriding. And so I invited her to walk as a horse. Suddenly, she could walk in time. She could do the things that were being asked of her. Because that rapidly bridged between what she knew, and what was being asked of her. That led to other coaching and I got my first film job with Stan And Ollie. Now I coach Premier League football coaches, the staff at The Fat Duck restaurant, actors in plays, actors in movies…
What’s been your proudest moment so far?
I was brought on to coach Elvis on Elvis, but I ended up sort of working with every cast member – [Alton Mason as] Little Richard, and Yola, playing Rosetta Tharpe, and Shonka Dukureh, playing Big Mama Thornton. And all the screaming girls in the film did workshops with me, because the screaming is so specific to Elvis. This was guttural, uncorseting, freeing, intense, fantastical screaming. He made them abandon themselves. But without doubt, the proudest moment of my entire life was coordinating the Las Vegas show when Elvis comes down into the audience, and he ends up kissing lots of women as he travels around the auditorium. That was just really special; to both be responsible for Austin, and 300 extras – where they were going, where they were moving so they could do it over and over again. And also, for Covid reasons, we needed to track who was kissing him [laughs].
What would you say to someone who wanted to get into this?
There are courses where you can study movement or movement direction.
I did a masters in movement studies at a drama school. But that didn’t teach me how to do this. It taught me that I wanted to do it, and it gave me the space and time to think about it. But the biggest thing is to watch things, and watch people. There’s no methodology. My way of understanding movement is because I was a dancer, and because sometimes I was too exuberant in my ballet, and I got told off!
‘This was guttural, uncorseting, freeing, intense, fantastical screaming. He made them abandon themselves’
ELVIS IS IN CINEMAS NOW.