Austin Butler took care to accurately represent Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis.
The Oscar-nominated actor discussed the lengths he went to for the character in a clip for this week’s episode of the Variety Awards Circuit podcast.
Butler, 31, admitted that in order to play the older version of Presley in the biographical picture, which charts the renowned music icon’s journey to popularity through various stages of his career, he had to put on weight.
“I’ve heard that Ryan Gosling would microwave Häagen-Dazs and consume it while filming The Lovely Bones. I so began to do that “He clarified.
He admitted that he used a body suit to play Presley in the movie’s sequences, but he also said that he did everything he could to get ready for them.
“To buy two dozen doughnuts and devour them all, I would go. I really started to gain weight at this point. It’s enjoyable for about a week, after which you feel terrible about yourself “He went on. “But we intended to start shooting in chronological order. That was quickly abandoned, especially with COVID. It was simply not doable.”
He revealed during a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival in May that he put his “life on rest for two years” to take in “everything” about Presley while the movie’s filming and release date had many COVID pandemic-related delays.
“I just fell into an obsessional rabbit hole. I spent two years studying him, trying to understand his humanity as best I could via that, and I divided his life into periods of time where I could hear the differences in how his voice and movement altered over the years “Added he.
In January, he said during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that the experience was intimidating. And I was really simply led by my terror,” he admitted.
He admitted that he had collections of Presley’s voice that he would “listen to every day – his laugh, different songs” for “hours” throughout the performance.
Butler told Jimmy Kimmel, “And then once I was permitted to leave the apartment, I would usually wake up every day around 3 or 4 in the morning with this terror.”
