Austin Butler struggled to lose his Elvis accent in preparation for the upcoming miniseries, Masters of the Air.
On Wednesday, the Academy Award-nominated actor guested on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss his new Apple+ show, which premieres on Jan. 26. The 32-year-old also revealed the lengths it took to get rid of his Elvis Presley accent, which he acquired in three years of working on the 2022 Baz Luhrmann film.
Butler's work on Masters of the Air began a week after he wrapped Elvis, and came at the advice of Tom Hanks. "He was sort of joking, saying 'You're gonna lose your mind when you finish this three years of your focused on this one thing. You're gonna to have to find something else to jump into right afterward."
Butler also discussed the difficult transition of going from Presley to playing Major Gale Cleven.
"I was just trying to remember who I was. I was trying to remember what I liked to do and all I thought about was Elvis for three years, he added. "And then I had that week off, and then I flew to London, and at that time it was COVID, so I was quarantined for 10 days. I thought, 'Alright, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now. I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis."
Butler was aware of the jokes surrounding his Presley accent, which some considered forced. In a February 2023 episode of The Edward Graham Show, Butler swore that his Presley speech was an unconscious decision. "If I tried to sound like Elvis, I would sound very different right now—I’m not gonna, you have to pay extra for that," he joked.
