Austin Butler has revealed the lengths he had to go to get rid of the Elvis Presley accent he spent years working towards for his hit movie last year.
Butler, 32, raised eyebrows at the Golden Globes last year after he picked up the Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Elvis, and did his entire speech in King of Rock 'n' Roll's voice.
During his speech, he praised the Presley family including Priscilla Presley and the late Lisa Marie Presley but many couldn't get around his accent.
During a post-show press conference, Butler addressed the persistent debate about his voice, stating: "I had three years where that was my only focus, so I'm sure there's pieces of him in my DNA, and I’ll always be linked."
It turns out that Butler really was struggling to shake off the accent and has opened up on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert about the challenges he faced transitioning from his role as Elvis to his latest project, Masters of the Air.
Butler disclosed that he began shooting the Apple TV+ miniseries just a week after wrapping up the three-year-long filming of the Elvis biopic.
"It was a lot," Butler admitted about the rapid shift between projects. "I was just trying to remember who I was, I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years.
"And then I had that week off, and then I flew to London, and at that time it was Covid, so I'm quarantined for 10 days. I thought, alright, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.
Watch Butler's interview below:To avoid sounding like the King of Rock 'n' Roll in Masters of the Air, Butler enlisted the help of a dialect coach. He explained: "I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis in that film, that was the whole thing."
Butler credited his Elvis co-star Tom Hanks, also an executive producer on Masters of the Air, for guiding him into the war drama. He shared the story of Hanks suggesting he needed to find another project immediately after the intense Elvis filming, leading to the opportunity in the World War II-themed miniseries.
Speaking on the Graham Norton Show last year, Howard Fine, Butler's acting coach, shed light on the actor's vocal training, emphasizing the immersive approach to adopt an accent naturally.
"The correct way to work on an accent is to speak that way 24/7 until it becomes second nature," Fine explained. He clarified that the goal was to ensure Butler wasn't merely imitating Presley but truly inhabiting the character.
I'll definitely be keeping an ear out for Elvis' accent in Masters of the Air.
