Austin Butler Threw ‘All My Eggs in One Basket’ in Hopes of Winning ‘Elvis’ Role
Austin Butler is riding high on the success of Elvis, where he plays the titular role of the Elvis Presley. The actor, who embodied the King of Rock and Roll in a performance hailed by Presley’s wife Priscilla and daughter Lisa Marie, admits that he took a chance when auditioning. Butler claims he threw “all my eggs in one basket,” hoping to win the lead in the motion picture.
Austin Butler felt the stars aligned in his quest to play Presley in ‘Elvis’
Butler told Games Radar he believed the stars were in alignment in his quest to tackle the joyful yet challenging experience.
“There were a couple of moments before I’d ever heard that Baz [Luhrmann] was making an Elvis film that made it feel like the stars were aligning, Butler explained.
“A couple of months before I heard that he was doing it, I was driving. It was Christmastime in LA, and I was driving with a friend, going to look at Christmas lights. An Elvis Christmas song was on, and I was singing along with it. And my friend had this epiphany moment. He said, ‘You need to play Elvis.’ “That’s one of those things that feels like such a long shot that I just brushed it off,” the actor said.
Butler said at his agent’s suggestion, he put together a video of himself singing a Presley tune.
“I ended up doing ‘Love Me Tender’ in my bedroom and watched it back. I thought, ‘I can’t stand this impersonation.’ So I didn’t send it,” the actor explained.
However, after a tough night’s sleep, where he dreamt of his mother Lori, who passed when the actor was 23, Butler sat at the piano, sang, and played “Unchained Melody” in a bathrobe. This tape was ultimately sent to Luhrmann and secured Butler the Presley role.
Butler threw ‘all my eggs in one basket’ to win the role
Before beginning the rigorous audition process for Elvis, Butler dove into the entertainer’s backstory as if he had already won the part.
“I went into the research as though I had the job,” the actor explained.
“At the time, I didn’t have a job. I’d finished an acting job before that, and it’d been some months, and other auditions and stuff were coming. But I just said, ‘I’m not going to audition for anything else.'” Butler claimed.
“I turned down everything else because I said, ‘I’m not going to split my energy here.’ I threw all my eggs into this one basket,” he said.
At that time, Butler began watching every documentary he could and listening to every Elvis record. He also read every book and listened to every interview the King had ever done.
Butler claimed he realized there were “certain keys to [Elvis] humanity.”
“Because that’s the tricky thing about Elvis. He’s seen as society’s wallpaper or in a superhuman status. Neither one of those things can you embody as an actor. They’re both not helpful. So I was trying to find: where is his humanity? Who was he really as a man?” the actor said.
Austin Butler says the audition process for ‘Elvis’ role took five months
In an interview with Kelly Clarkson for The Kelly Clarkson Show, Butler broke down the rigorous five-month audition for Luhrmann.
The actor flew to New York, where he met Luhrmann. The two spoke for three hours. The director subsequently invited Butler to read for the Presley role.
Luhrmann then asked Butler to reread and sing him a couple of songs the following day.
“We ended up doing that for five months,” the actor revealed. “It was unlike any audition process.”
“Then it came time for the screen test,” Butler said. “I prepared everything for the screen test, and on the day, Baz changed everything. I was supposed to do a couple of scenes, and he changed the scenes,” he explained.
Luhrmann also switched the songs Butler had painstakingly prepared for the screen test.
“He put me through the wringer, but now I know it’s because he likes to be spontaneous on set. I didn’t think I got the role, but a week later, I woke up to Baz calling me,” he concluded.
Elvis is in theaters now.
