Austin Butler is finally ‘getting rid’ of his Elvis accent: ‘I have probably damaged by vocal cords’
Austin Butler is (finally) losing the Elvis accent that put him at the center of the Oscar race and a few jokes on social media.
“I am getting rid of the accent, but I have probably damaged my vocal cords with all that singing,” the 31-year-old upcoming star of Dune: Part Two said on Friday’s episode of BBC One’s Graham Norton Show. “One song took 40 takes.”
Butler drew critical praise for his portrayal of famed musician Elvis Presley in the Baz Luhrmann-directed biopic — which also received a Best Picture nomination from The Academy in January — though many noted the actor’s retention of the singer’s deep vocal tone, particularly during his gig hosting Saturday Night Live in December.
Butler’s Elvis costar, Tom Hanks, also performed with a notable accent during production as he took on the role of Presley’s Dutch manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
“I had no idea what it was going to be like meeting someone you have admired for so long. You hope they would be warm to you, but you never really know. He is such a master of his craft, and I was intimidated, but the first time I met him he gave me the biggest bear hug and joked about how nervous he was,” Butler told Norton of meeting Hanks before they bonded over playing men with distinct voices. “When I said I was terrified, he said ‘And, nobody knows what Colonel Parker sounds like, but everyone knows what Elvis sounds like!'”
The first-time Oscar nominee previously told EW how he practiced tackling Presley’s voice.
“I’d hear him say a certain word and I would clip just that bit out so I knew how he said that word,” he said of his process. “I created my own archive of how he said every word and every diphthong, and the way that he used musicality in his voice.”
Elvis is now streaming on HBO Max. The Graham Norton Show airs Friday night on BBC One in the United Kingdom.
