It takes a lot of sacrifices for an actor to immerse themselves into a role … just ask Austin Butler.
The 30-year-old actor is set to star as Rock-‘n’-Roll legend Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming biopic “Elvis.”
During Thursday’s press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, Butler admitted he shut himself off from the rest of the world in a desperate bid to surrender himself to the role.
“I basically put the rest of my life on pause for two years,” Butler said. “I just absorbed everything that I possibly could.”
Butler flirted with the idea of bringing in personal life to a grinding halt while he keenly studied the “Hound Dog” hitmaker.
Eventually, he realized he “went down the rabbit hole of obsession.”
“I broke down his life into periods of time where I could hear the differences in how his voice changed over the years and how his movement changed over the years and I spent two years studying, trying to find his humanity as best as I could through that,” Butler explained.
“The tricky thing is you see Elvis as this icon, or as the wallpaper of society and finding a way to strip all of that away and find the very human nature of him that was deeper than all of that, that’s what was fascinating for me.”
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Butler as he slipped into the blue suede shoes of the iconic crooner.
Butler said certain “unrealistic expectations” hindered his success at first as he opened up about the unprecedented challenges during filming
“When I first started, I put these unrealistic expectations on myself that somehow, if I worked hard enough, I could make my face identical to Elvis’ face,” Butler told reporters. “And that my eyes would look exactly like Elvis’ eyes and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”
The actor credited the soul, not the physical appearance, as what tied him to the legendary singer.
“At a certain point that becomes like going to the wax museum, and what is really important is that his soul comes out.”
Despite the challenges, Butler said the experience was “the joy of my life.” And it’s safe to say Presley’s loved ones were far from disappointed with Butler’s performance.
The crooner’s widow Priscilla Presley flew to Cannes herself to officially give her stamp of approval, meanwhile daughter Lisa Marie, and granddaughter Riley Keough each praised Butler for an outstanding portrayal.
“It just brought tears to my eyes because there’s never been a person who I’ve never met that I love more than Elvis. I’ve lived with him for three years,” Butler said.
“The feeling of doing him justice, justice to his legacy, and bringing life to this extraordinary man and to make Lisa Marie, Priscilla and Riley, and the entire family proud, I could not be more overjoyed and feel over the moon about that.”