Although he is far from a newcomer, Austin Butler may well understand for the first time what a real frenzy is. A few days before the presentation at the Cannes Film Festival of the new feature film by Baz Luhrmann, simply titled Elviswe were able to speak with the interpreter of the King.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
When he learned that Baz Luhrmann was preparing a film on Elvis Presley, Denzel Washington did neither one nor two. He immediately contacted the director of Red Mill.
“Denzel told me I should meet this actor he shared the stage with on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh [Eugene O’Neill] specifying that he had never seen such professional ethics, related the filmmaker during a press meeting held virtually. When I first met Austin, he had already been living with Elvis in his head for quite a while. To the point where I find it difficult to say today if it was really me who chose it. It’s that big. I made with him all possible and imaginable tests! »
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Austin Butler aka Elvis Presley
Born 14 years after the death of the interpreter of Jailhouse Rock, Austin Butler evokes a “perfect” alignment of the stars, even if the simple fact of donning the costumes of the icon scared him cosmicly. Several months before meeting Baz Luhrmann, whom he had never met in his life, the actor acted as if the role had already been assigned to him. During this self-preparing period, he even turned down all the other auditions he was offered.
“I fed a real obsession by looking for lots of fine details about Elvis, because I wanted to find his humanity, explains Austin Butler. We know well the deified image of Elvis, but where is the human being? Once I got the role, I prepared every day for six months. Baz summoned me one day, telling me the day before that he wanted to see me sing Suspicious Mind. Or Hound DogWhere Don’t Be Cruel. On the first day of shooting, we were already very well prepared. »
America on the boil
The approach of Baz Luhrmann, who has not offered a new feature since The Great Gatsby, in 2013, is to tell Elvis Presley through the eyes of Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), the one who watched over the singer’s career by often squeezing the lemon to the maximum. Presley having emerged at a time – the 1950s and 1960s – when America was in turmoil, the character, a real beast of the stage with the power to electrify crowds, quickly became larger than life. Austin Butler thus had to offer stage performances at the height.
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Austin Butler plays Elvis Presley, and Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker in Elvisa film by Baz Luhrmann.
“To be honest, I hadn’t done anything like this before. I felt a very great responsibility towards Elvis, his family, his admirers all over the world. I felt the weight of incredible pressure. And a huge fear in my stomach. Every day, I feared that I was not worthy of the trust that had been granted to me. »
I wanted so much to do justice to Elvis that I relentlessly worked on my singing, then the intonations of his voice. This experience was truly remarkable. I am certainly no longer the same person today.
Austin Butler
Ensuring the interpretation of the songs of youth in his own voice (it is mixed with that of Elvis Presley for the second part of the film), Austin Butler also worked with several movement experts in order to translate with precision the gestures of the one whom We nicknamed Elvis the Pelvis for a while. And whose strokes were even censored on television.
“To make my feet nimble, I had to learn tap dancing, ballet, contemporary dance. I also understood why Elvis had to take pain medication. Because of the movements he made for so long, his body ached. It was very physically demanding. »
That moment when everything changes…
For request of The Press, Austin Butler described the precise moment when he had the feeling of being really able to give flesh – it’s a huge challenge – to a character still present in the collective imagination. It was the day when a special was recreated, broadcast in 1968, which marked the King’s return to the stage after he had devoted several years of his life to the cinema.
“I put on the famous black leather suit, confides the actor. I was terribly nervous. Right before going onstage, I had this moment with myself where I thought Elvis must feel the same way. This return to the stage was for him the “make or break” stage. I found that this pressure had similarities with mine. There is the fear of failure, but also the will to overcome this fear. I then took all this energy that circulated inside me and I started. I looked around and realized that the relationship I could create with the audience – hundreds of extras – was very real. This day of filming was completely exhilarating. Hearing the screams and applause at the end, the same kind that Elvis was getting, I closed my eyes and then gave myself permission to think that at that moment his life and mine were converging.
PHOTO ANGELA WEISS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
On May 2, Austin Butler and Priscilla Presley appeared on the red carpet at the Met Gala, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Elvis Presley’s wife is full of praise for the man who plays her husband in Baz Luhrmann’s film.
“Afterwards, he continues, I returned alone to my dressing room, in silence. I looked at myself in the mirror, dressed in the leather suit, covered in sweat, straight in the eyes thinking that Elvis must have afforded that same moment of silence too. And that’s when I was like, ‘OK. I think I can do it.” »
Rarely has a role taken and given him so much at the same time.
After finishing the very last scene, I went back to my trailer and started crying. I kept repeating to myself: but who am I? It was as if, after living with Elvis so intimately for so long, I wondered how one could readjust to real life afterwards. At the same time, you think of the joy of having been able to live such an experience.
Austin Butler
A premiere in Cannes
The first big test will also take place in a few days at the Cannes Film Festival, where Elvis will be presented as a world premiere, out of competition. Even though he was in the cast of The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino), two films launched on the Croisette in 2019, Austin Butler will be going to the Cannes ball for the very first time.
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Elvis’ belt buckle
“I could have gone there three years ago, but the festival fell just as I was preparing my audition for Elvis, reveals the actor. The decision was then very difficult to make, but I preferred not to go. This time, it’s as if the circle had come full circle. And the idea of going to Cannes with Elvis excites me a lot! »
Since this interview, the American specialized media – Deadline and variety in the lead – claimed that Austin Butler would take on the role of the charismatic Feyd-Rautha in Dune: Part Two. Filming for Denis Villeneuve’s next film is due to begin this summer, with a view to a release on October 20, 2023.
The 75and Cannes Film Festival, where our special correspondent Marc Cassivi will go, will be held from May 17 to 28.
Elvis hits theaters June 24.