Appearing on BBC One’s “The Graham Norton Show,” actor Austin Butler revealed he’s losing the Elvis accent that he hasn’t quite been able to shake since ending the filming of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis”.
Butler drew plenty of critical praise, and an Oscar nomination, for his portrayal of famed musician Elvis Presley. However, there has been plenty of discussion in recent months online about how the actor has retained the singer’s deep vocal tone.
Butler previously said he emulated the singer for up to three years which involved a bunch of voice and dialect training to perfect Presley’s voice at different points in his life.
Subsequently, Presley’s Southern drawl can be heard in Butler’s recent appearances on “Saturday Night Live” and at the Golden Globes earlier this year.
Speaking with Norton on Friday, he not only talked about the accent and how social media has made him very self-conscious about it and revealed the toll perfecting that voice took on him:
“I am getting rid of the accent, but I have probably damaged my vocal cords with all that singing. One song took 40 takes.”
Butler will next be seen as the lethal Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two” and his co-star Dave Bautista says Butler’s Elvis drawl is not audible at all in the “Dune” sequel. Of his co-star’s performance, Bautista tells USA Today:
“I don’t know who this guy was, but it’s not Austin Butler. It’s not Elvis. His voice is different, his look is different. Everything about his demeanour is terrifying.”
Bautista adds the real Butler is “just the sweetest guy you’ll ever meet”. As for the sequel film itself, Bautista tells Collider it’s very different and he’s keen for audiences to take it in:
“This is so amped up from the first film. The first film was just an introduction to what this film is. There’s just so much going on, it’s so much more cutthroat and political and intense. And there are moments of levity where [there are] some funny moments, and they’re kind of absurd humor, but there are those moments. So it’s just so much more amped up than the first film.”
Despite the inclusion of Butler’s Feyd and Christopher Walken as antagonists, Bautista says his own role of Rabban is much bigger than in the first film.
“Dune: Part Two” opens in cinemas on November 3rd.
Austin Butler talks about the effect Elvis’ voice had on him on the Graham Norton Show. pic.twitter.com/y7ScgcM7Mu
— Austin Butler News (@AButlerNews) February 3, 2023
