Austin Butler: What I learned from playing Elvis
Austin Butler was "moved" to discover the "humour" of Elvis Presley whilst playing him in the biopic as he admitted he "never knew" about the generosity of the late music legend.
Austin Butler was "moved" to discover the "humour" of Elvis Presley whilst playing him in the biopic.
The 31-year-old actor takes on the title role of the late music legend - who died in 1977 at the age of 42 - in 'Elvis' but admitted that he was unaware of his generous nature before taking on the part and still cannot believe that he was cast in the first place.
He said: "I didn't know about his incredible generosity. I'd heard a little bit about it, but then you hear the stories of him just taking off his jewellery and just giving it to a stranger, or giving somebody that he doesn't even know a car. And the other thing that really touched me was his humour. He was a really funny man. Things like that moved me. I absolutely have to pinch myself."
The former 'Zoey 101' star went on to add that the film explores the "really tricky" relationship between Elvis and his manager Colonel Tom Parker as well as the "universal theme" of wanting to leave behind a legacy after death.
He told Empire Magazine: "It's a really tricky relationship to sum up, and I think that's what a lot of this film is trying to explore. Elvis was really famous locally, but he wasn't famous globally. The Colonel was a master at marketing, so it's sort of a Svengali-like relationship. Elvis wanted to do certain things like tour the world, and he wasn't able to because of the Colonel. I've got a lot of feelings about it. There's a lot of different ways of approaching it. One of the keys was that later on in his life he didn't want to fall asleep in a room by himself. So he'd have one of his back-up singers come and sit by his bedside, and he'd tell her stories and stuff about his mom. And at one point, he said, 'Am I just gonna be forgotten after I die?' It's a very universal thing, reaching for eternity."
