Austin Butler is many things: one of the breaking stars of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the ex-boyfriend of Vanessa Hudgens and a lead actor in the new Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg-produced World War II series Masters of the Air. However, as he explained Wednesday night on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Butler is first and foremost the star of Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis, a role in which he became so immersed he had trouble ridding himself of The King’s distinctive voice.
Butler started working on Masters “a week after” his three-year stint as Elvis ended, he told Colbert. “I had a week off after Elvis... it was almost too fast.”
Colbert asked how the transition went, to which Butler responded, “I was just trying to remember who I was, you know, what I like to do... all I thought about for three years was Elvis.”
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Buddy... we know. How do we know? It’s because, for years, Butler has delightfully and obnoxiously brought up his immersion with Elvis at every possible opportunity.
“I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I must because I hear it a lot,” Butler told reporters at the Golden Globes in 2023. “I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time. I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”
“I am getting rid of the voice,” he later assured the host of The Graham Norton Show; this, again, was nearly a year ago.
But back to Colbert this week, during which Butler, patron saint of over-committing to the bit, revealed that he had once again called upon the aid of a vocal coach, as he did during Elvis, only this time, he needed help ridding himself of Elvis.
“I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis,” he revealed, to which Colbert replied, “Oh, wow.”
