He is about to climb the steps of the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, this Wednesday, May 25.
No one would have bet that Austin Butler, the darling of the Disney team, would one day play Elvis in the highly anticipated biopic by Baz Luhrmann, screened in preview on the Croisette.
The 30-year-old actor thus capped Harry Styles, Miles Teller and Ansel Elgort, all three in the running for the role.
Seduced by the "unprecedented" performance of Austin Butler, Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of the "King", is already predicting an Oscar for him.
A success that the actor owes in part to his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Hudgens, and a certain Denzel Washington.
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“You have to embody Elvis”
It all started during the Christmas holidays in 2018. Austin Butler then crossed Griffith Park, in Los Angeles, driving his car.
In the passenger seat, his girlfriend at the time, Vanessa Hudgens, with whom he began a romance in 2011. From the radio set escape the notes of
Blue Christmas -
a title that the actor hastens to intone.
"You have to embody Elvis", launches his companion, subjugated.
The idea does not displease Austin Butler.
The actor thinks a time to acquire the rights of adaptation for the history of Elvis.
Then discovers that Baz Luhrmann is himself preparing a feature film on the artist.
“I felt that the planets were aligned, confided the actor to
Vogue US
at the end of April.
I told myself that I was going to give everything to get this role.
After listening to the singer's entire repertoire, he records a video for his audition.
But sees in it only a pale "imitation".
In video, “06400-Cannes”: the postcard from the Cannes Film Festival 2022, episode 2
“I sang it to my mother”
One night, the young man sees in a dream his mother Lori, who died of cancer in 2014. This former director of a family nursery had once put an end to her activity to follow her son in his race for the stars.
From this dream is born a real trigger.
Like Austin Butler, Elvis Presley lost his mother at the age of 23.
"I sat down at the piano in my bathrobe and started to play," says the man who tamed the instrument on his own when he was a child.
“I had practiced performing
Unchained Melody
for a while, but I had always sung it as if I was speaking to a lover.
That night, I sang it to my mother.
At this moment, Austin Butler "is not trying to sound like Elvis", simply "to grab that emotion and pour it into the song".
Successful bet.
Denzel's Call
“What I heard vocally and, more importantly, what I perceived in terms of emotion, could not be ignored,” recalls Baz Luhrmann.
After viewing the sequence, the director receives a call from Denzel Washington.
The actor starred opposite Austin Butler in
The Iceman Cometh
, a Broadway musical.
"Denzel Washington said to me, 'I just officiated with this young man on stage. I've never seen someone with such a work ethic,' continues Baz Luhrmann.
I was like, 'Okay, I have to meet him.
Filming begins in March 2020, on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Despite the Covid-19 epidemic, Austin Butler refuses to return to the United States, preferring to immerse himself in the role of the rocker.
As in the detective series, the thirties pin on a painting elements retracing the life of the "King".
On the film set, his nervous first steps quickly give way to the euphoria of the scene.
"As soon as I freed myself from this energy, when I tried to make a girl in the audience laugh and blush, then the fear flew away," he recalls.
On video,
Elvis
, the trailer
In the Shadow of Disney
An experience that this child from Anaheim, California would not have dared to dream of.
Born on August 17, 1991, Austin Butler grew up in the shadow of the Disney theme park, which he sometimes frequented with his parents (before they divorced when he was only 7 years old) and his sister, despite their meager savings.
The little boy still has no idea that Walt Disney's empire will leave an indelible mark on his CV.
At 12, he accompanies a friend to an audition, organized by the studios that saw the birth of Mickey Mouse.
And it all starts here.
During the following decade, Austin Butler went on to play the ultra-sleek roles of enamored blonds in Disney productions, such as
Hannah Montana
or a spin-off from
High School Musical
.
In 2013, he also starred in
The Carrie Diaries
, a prequel to
Sex & the City
.
Hello New York
Full screen
Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler in
Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure
.
(2010.) Getty Images
An image of a young first with which the actor has great difficulty in composing.
"I was a little embarrassed about some things I had to play - but I had to scratch my head somewhere," he admits in the columns of
Vogue US
.
So I decided to consider each of these jobs as a way to grow.”
Soon tired, Austin Butler plans to quit the job.
He invests in a camera, hoping to get to the other side of the lens.
He won't have time.
In 2018, his agent offers him to officiate on Broadway, in
The Iceman Cometh
.
Worried at the idea of being “shredded” by New York good society, Austin Butler sees the opposite happening.
"Although there are many artists in the staging of Eugene O'Neill (...), there is only one actor, and his name is Austin Butler", writes the
New Yorker
in his review of the show.
The beginning of a real transformation for this fan of James Dean, who decides to expand his CV by landing supporting roles in the films of Quentin Tarantino and Jim Jarmusch.
Exit the blond without asperities, Austin Butler becomes in Hollywood a "King" with raven black hair.
Kaia Gerber's costume
Coming soon to
Dune, part 2
- one of the most anticipated films of 2023 - Austin Butler now has two million Instagram subscribers.
On the sentimental side, his successive companions - he separated from Vanessa Hudgens in 2020 - are named Olivia Dejonge (
Elvis
), Lily-Rose Depp (
The King
), and now Kaia Gerber (
American Horror Story
), Cindy's daughter Crawford, with whom he attended the Met Gala on May 2.
Full screen
Kaia Gerber and Jacob Elordi dress up as Priscilla and Elvis Presley for Halloween 2020. Instagram/@kaiagerber screenshot
Funny coincidence that the costume chosen by the latter for Halloween 2020, a month before the start of their idyll, when she was in a relationship with Jacob Elordi.
That evening, she wore the ultra-curved hair of Priscilla Presley, the only wife of the “King”.
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