Austin Butler won Best Actor In A Motion Picture, Drama at last week’s 2023 Golden Globes for his popular portrayal of the late Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, but the real prize was learning that Butler has not abandoned his Elvis accent during his acceptance speech.
Everyone clamoring for Butler to speak like Elvis forever will be happy with what Irene Bartlett, Butler’s Elvis voice coach, told ABC Australia’s “Gold Coast” about the future of the beloved accent.
“He was never going to be — and [director] Baz Luhrmann didn’t want him to be — an Elvis impersonator, that’s the last thing they wanted him to be,” Bartlett said. “What they wanted was a true connection with the personality of Elvis and his story and that’s what Austin worked on.”
She added, “What you saw in that Golden Globes speech, that’s him. It’s genuine. It’s not put on. […] I feel sorry people are saying that, you know, it’s still acting [but] he’s actually taken [the voice] on board. I don’t know how long that will last, or if it’s going to be there forever.”
Butler addressed the hot topic at the Golden Globes:
Austin Butler touches on his #Elvis voice transformation in #GoldenGlobes press room pic.twitter.com/dK2zuTilgp
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 11, 2023
“I don’t think I sound like him still,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter. “But I guess I must because I hear it a lot. I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time, and I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”