“Elvis” stars Austin Butler (Elvis), Tom Hanks (Colonel Tom Parker), Olivia DeJonge (Priscilla Presley), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (B.B. King), Alton Mason (Little Richard), Yola (Sister Rosetta Tharpe), and director Baz Luhrmann sit down with CinemaBlend’s Sean O’Connell to talk about the making of a story about The King. Austin Butler describes his nervous energy about singing in front of strangers and how they shot the film’s concert sequences. Tom Hanks and director Baz Luhrmann talk about being asked to compromise artistic vision for those who want to profit. Yola, Alton Mason, and others discuss the idea of talent and whether or not the talent of someone like Elvis is timeless.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 I want to go back into the theater with a bunch of strangers
00:02 and leave with something in common.
00:04 That's what I want to do.
00:05 ♪ These pictures of mine ♪
00:07 - Whoever once told me
00:08 that things are too dangerous to save.
00:12 ♪ All that I have is mine ♪
00:15 - Sing.
00:17 - Baz stages these concerts with full-on audiences
00:22 and screaming fans,
00:23 and I want to know how that kind of impacted
00:26 your performance to have a crowd in front of you.
00:28 - Well, so for one, I was really nervous about that.
00:32 'Cause I'd never performed in front of a crowd before.
00:34 I'm not, I never sang in front of anybody
00:37 except my very close friends before.
00:39 And in a moment of panic, I called Rami Malek
00:43 and I was like, what, how did it feel?
00:46 What did you go through and all those things?
00:48 And he said, you know, I really,
00:51 those days you end up feeling the energy of the audience
00:54 and it becomes this thing that those will probably
00:56 end up becoming your favorite days on set.
00:58 And it was so true.
00:59 And also the way that, like you were saying,
01:01 the way that Baz did it.
01:02 Very early on, we kind of set out to not have these moments
01:07 where it's shifting between here I am Austin
01:10 and then there's Elvis.
01:12 So anytime, even when he gave me direction,
01:14 it was all kind of within the context of what we were,
01:19 the concert that we were doing or whatever, so.
01:21 - 'Cause they are all different.
01:22 - Yeah, yeah.
01:23 And so like in Vegas,
01:25 the way we do it is this curtain comes up, I come out,
01:27 we do the entire concert, curtain comes down.
01:29 So the audience every time is getting the feeling
01:32 of being at a concert.
01:33 - Wow, that's incredible.
01:35 - Yeah, so we weren't breaking it up.
01:37 And so it meant that they had the experience
01:40 of not seeing any illusion broken.
01:43 - Oh my God, that's incredible.
01:45 You actually gave them a concert every single time.
01:47 - And we did that in Russwood as well.
01:49 And so there's always the moment of,
01:52 Baz calls them supporting artists,
01:54 all the people in the audience,
01:56 they're just so, I was so impressed with them.
01:59 There's girls in the audience with tears in their eyes
02:01 and just the emotion that they had felt so truthful.
02:05 So when I look in their eyes and I'm seeing real emotion,
02:07 seeing a girl blush and a girl with tears in her eyes,
02:10 it transcends what you imagine that moment would be.
02:13 - One of the things I found so fascinating about the film
02:14 is all the times that Elvis was asked
02:16 to compromise his vision, essentially,
02:18 and to tune down the show to help the business side of it.
02:21 And I'm just curious how often you and your collaborators
02:23 have run into that.
02:24 - No, never.
02:25 Well, mostly it's kind of like,
02:26 can it have a happy ending?
02:28 Can you be a little more nice?
02:30 Why are you so cranky in this movie?
02:32 It comes around like that.
02:33 But I've been for a long time in a pretty lucky position
02:36 in which I get to weigh,
02:38 you eventually have this vote, yes or no.
02:41 And if you say yes, there you go.
02:45 And it's really hard to say no sometimes
02:48 'cause the people are great.
02:50 Who knows, you get to go to Graceland or something like that.
02:52 But unless you have an understanding of,
02:55 there is a theme you're going to examine
02:58 in a very specific way.
03:00 If they're not gonna let you do that,
03:02 then you have to say no,
03:03 or fight tooth and nail on her to get what you want.
03:05 And I've done that a couple of times.
03:07 - I think the financiers have given up on that one with me.
03:11 [laughing]
03:13 They've given up on it.
03:14 Like a lot of people have given up on that with me.
03:17 I mean, it's not, listen, Sean, I'm not arrogant about it.
03:20 Like I genuinely, I decide to make things,
03:23 I hope that have relevance now,
03:26 but also will be relevant in the future.
03:28 And honestly, I just see it as my duty to do the work.
03:32 I came here to start research five years ago here, Graceland.
03:37 And I wouldn't have believed that five years later,
03:39 I'd be sitting here and being asked to have a barbecue
03:42 in Graceland and invited in by the family.
03:44 Like as if I was in someone's home.
03:47 You're right about what you're getting at.
03:49 Like the show isn't a biopic.
03:52 It's really about the cell and the soul, you know?
03:55 And Parker is this gigantuan mister like,
03:58 "Ah, you know, he's a clown with a chainsaw."
04:01 I mean, we've seen characters like that recently.
04:03 You know, say anything, do anything.
04:06 And he argues in the movie,
04:08 "Listen, I didn't kill Elvis.
04:10 You know what? I just did my job."
04:11 It's not in this movie.
04:13 I didn't put this bit in.
04:16 But when Elvis dies and the Colonel gets the phone call,
04:20 the first thing he does is pick the phone straight up
04:22 and ring RC and say, "Print more records."
04:25 Now we all go, "Yeah, what a cold human being."
04:29 Actually, probably yes.
04:30 But he would go, "Yeah, but you wanted the records."
04:33 Like, "I've just did my job."
04:35 - Yeah. - Right?
04:36 You know what I mean?
04:37 Like, of course, you of course will.
04:38 I'm not here to tell you the Colonel's right or wrong.
04:41 I'm here to engage everybody out there in the audience
04:42 and have them come into a dark room,
04:45 all as strange as watch a story
04:47 and feel something afterwards and have a discussion
04:50 and a drink and a dance and whatever, you know?
04:54 - Are you born with destiny?
04:55 Or does it just come knocking at your door?
05:01 - I wanna know if you think talent is timeless.
05:05 And by that, I mean, if Elvis were born in 2007,
05:08 do you think he still would have figured out a way
05:10 to break into the entertainment industry?
05:12 - Oh, well, do you know what?
05:13 It's really dependent on whoever's cognitive bias.
05:18 Let's go to the executives of the industries
05:20 that we deal in.
05:22 You know, when I was growing up,
05:24 I was told that no one had want to hear
05:26 a black woman sing rock and roll.
05:28 And they were like a head of A&R of a record company.
05:32 And so then I'm like, "Wait a minute.
05:34 "You don't know, I know a certain amount about music
05:36 "and I grew up with Cicero Rosetta.
05:38 "How don't you know who invented rock and roll?"
05:40 And so then it becomes this thing
05:43 like that, I suppose, guides who gets signed
05:47 and who doesn't.
05:48 And so maybe Elvis still gets signed because he's white.
05:51 And that's really like where we are still.
05:54 Jousting with this thing of like,
05:57 you know, are you plus and dark skin?
05:58 - Oh man, uphill battle.
06:02 - Well, you know, I'm doing all right.
06:04 I've got six Grammy nominations.
06:05 I ain't gonna cry.
06:06 But like, don't cry for me, Argentina.
06:09 All right, mate?
06:10 [laughing]
06:11 But like, it's like the idea of like seeing a gazillion me's
06:16 versus just me, like, or me and some other people.
06:21 Like, you know, like that's really so like,
06:23 I wonder like how many of the legends of our, you know,
06:28 our ancestors come up and get that.
06:30 I think maybe Elvis still does, you know?
06:34 I don't know.
06:34 - He would have been totally different.
06:35 - I think there's way too many artists
06:39 to be able to single,
06:41 it's just like I don't really necessarily,
06:42 I don't know, this is a,
06:43 I don't really know if there's room for like big, big,
06:46 like plus icons like Elvis, Michael, Prince anymore.
06:50 - Yeah.
06:50 - Just like I don't really think there's gonna be
06:51 like big movie stars like that anymore.
06:53 You know what I mean?
06:54 Tom Hanks is a rare thing.
06:55 - True, very true.
06:56 - Austin might break it through though.
06:57 I'll tell you that much.
06:58 He's giving us a run for his money.
07:00 - He's got the magnetism to make it happen, yeah.
07:03 If Elvis were born in 2007,
07:05 would he have still figured out a way to break into--
07:07 - Yes, I think absolutely he would have
07:09 because it's a transcendent moment.
07:12 And I think you can look at any number of artists right now
07:15 who have that one thing in common that Elvis had
07:18 is that they go some other place
07:19 when they start performing, you know?
07:21 And I don't, I think there was certainly times later on
07:24 where maybe Elvis didn't care too much.
07:27 And maybe when he was, you know,
07:29 recording the 17th set up of "Bossa Nova Baby"
07:32 and, you know, and "Fun in Acapulco,"
07:34 maybe he didn't want,
07:35 maybe he wasn't putting everything into it.
07:36 There is an aspect of, you know,
07:38 time and place that is undeniable.
07:40 But if we had never seen Elvis Presley
07:43 and never seen that representation of a guy
07:45 interpreting rhythm and blues or rock and roll
07:48 with this kind of like physical abandon,
07:50 much less the quality of the, and voice of the timbre,
07:53 I think everybody would just say, "Who's that guy?"
07:56 And he would be the same sort of forbidden fruit.
07:58 - Yeah, I mean, talent and circumstance.
08:00 I mean, the reason that I asked certain artists
08:03 to tribute during the credits,
08:05 and I hope the audience watched the credits,
08:08 like when Eminem made the song "The King and I,"
08:11 that's Eminem going, "I relate to Elvis's journey.
08:15 I had a similar journey."
08:17 The circumstances of Elvis growing up,
08:20 dad going to jail, the shame,
08:23 ending up in the black community, you know,
08:25 Beale Street, friends breaking segregation laws,
08:31 all that journey, all that, yes.
08:33 There's always going to be some child
08:38 with some broken heart
08:40 seeking to have unrequited love,
08:44 like, sorry, unconditional love,
08:47 and do something, whether it's a funny joke,
08:50 they're funny, or they can dance, or they sing,
08:54 whatever they do, and love comes across the footlights,
08:57 and they grow, and they get better and better and better,
08:59 but it comes back to your first question.
09:01 Eventually, someone's going to start giving them money
09:03 for that, and then someone's going to give more money
09:05 for that, but then someone's going to be going like,
09:07 "But if you do this, you'll get more money,"
09:09 and da-da-da-da-da, and they're just a human being,
09:12 and it's going to tear them apart.
09:13 That story is going to happen again,
09:16 but the profound uniqueness of Elvis's life,
09:20 a 42-year life, it seems like it was 100 years.
09:23 - I do think talent is timeless.
09:26 In the way that Van Gogh didn't really sell a painting,
09:31 until after his death, it's all within the context
09:35 of how people are perceiving things as well.
09:39 I know that he hit at a particular point,
09:43 so him changing the atmosphere in the '50s,
09:48 that was something that nobody had experienced before,
09:54 but I do think that music's timeless,
09:58 and you could walk through a museum and see a painting,
10:03 and it may impact one person,
10:05 another person may just walk right by,
10:07 and I think right now we're in a period
10:11 where people may be overwhelmed by the amount
10:15 that's out there, and also the shock value
10:17 of a lot of stuff out there,
10:18 so Elvis, what he was doing in the '50s
10:20 wouldn't be shocking today.
10:23 So there's that as well.
10:24 That's a really interesting question.
10:25 - I like to say that movies don't change at all,
10:27 but we change, so something that you see 10 years from now.
10:31 - That's really so true.
10:32 - Yeah, it's the same movie, but we're a different person.
10:35 - You experience different things in your life,
10:37 and it's hitting you in new ways.
10:39 - My story, I'll wrap on this,
10:41 is I saw "Finding Nemo" when it was in theaters,
10:44 and then when it came to home video,
10:46 in that time I'd found out I was gonna be a father
10:48 for the first time, and it was a totally different movie.
10:51 (laughs)
10:52 - Oh my God.
10:53 - It was completely different,
10:54 so art changes, you like that.
10:56 - That really is beautiful.
10:57 ♪ It's all right, Mom ♪
10:59 - Martin Luther King has been shot.
11:00 - Martin Luther King has been shot to death in Memphis.
11:02 ♪ It's all right for you ♪
11:05 - There are moments in the film
11:06 when the act of entertaining gets disrupted by real life,
11:09 you know, assassinations and tragedies that happen,
11:13 and in the moment, in the film,
11:15 it almost suggests that art is frivolous,
11:18 like this Christmas special that Elvis is working on
11:20 doesn't amount to what's going on,
11:22 but you don't think art is frivolous, do you?
11:24 - Ah, well, I wrote a song called "Diamond Studded Shoes,"
11:28 and it's about the previous prime minister of the UK,
11:31 Theresa May, and how she was delivering a little story
11:34 about swiping meals out of the hands of babes
11:37 whilst wearing diamonds in her heels,
11:39 which, you know, is a bit rich, to be honest,
11:41 and so I've always kind of put the two together.
11:45 It's like a call to arms for everyone else on Earth,
11:50 all the other humans, to go,
11:51 you know, stop riding us all the way to the bank, please,
11:54 you know, like I've always had that element
11:57 of, like, trying to have a higher purpose to what I'm doing,
12:01 be it in galvanizing of people, of working classes,
12:06 of, like, people from, like, a rainbow coalition of people.
12:10 That's definitely what my crowd looks like.
12:11 My fans look like every part of Earth.
12:14 - Amen. - It's cool.
12:16 It's so cool. - That's so cool.
12:19 - But, yeah, and so, like, a film,
12:20 and I think, like, I think, like,
12:22 I just watched, like, Judas and the Black Messiah.
12:24 - Oh, yeah. - And that whole kind of idea
12:26 of just, like, bringing everyone together
12:29 is, like, a really great thing.
12:31 It's a really great mission and purpose,
12:34 and I think music has,
12:36 every revolution has a soundtrack.
12:39 - Well, you have to, I think that art has to take
12:41 into account some aspect of the zeitgeist that's going on.
12:45 Sometimes the taking into the zeit,
12:47 that means let's do something so totally different
12:50 that this has truly, and everybody knows,
12:52 this has no connection to what's really going on,
12:54 much like the carnival on the edge of town.
12:57 You know, the lights are on, the Ferris wheel is set up,
13:00 let's go see the elephant,
13:01 and let's have a great night for a night or two,
13:03 and then we'll come back and deal
13:04 with all the problems in town.
13:06 You know, the plumbing doesn't work,
13:08 and we don't have a good bus, you know,
13:10 we don't have a good bus system.
13:12 But the other time I think is you have,
13:14 and I think Baz did a great job on this,
13:17 is understanding the racial divide
13:19 that was extremely cultural in between
13:22 when Elvis first fell in love with music,
13:24 and by the time he's got the sweet inspirations
13:27 up on stage with him in Las Vegas.
13:28 There is something there that you had to
13:32 pay some attention to, otherwise I think you're,
13:35 you lack a brand of authenticity that I think
13:38 is the whole point of being in cinema in the first place.
13:40 - People do it with inspiring them.
13:43 Otherwise, you know, I hope they aren't doing it.
13:45 And I think it comes down to the individual.
13:47 If they don't find that there's some purpose in it,
13:50 then there probably is none.
13:52 If someone's forcing them to do something,
13:54 then that's a different story, you know?
13:55 And I think a Christmas special,
13:56 someone's trying to make money off it
13:57 and you don't want to do it, then probably not best.
14:01 - Not the best idea.
14:02 It seemed, watching the movie,
14:03 that Elvis was photographed constantly,
14:05 and that there was a lot of footage for Austin to look at
14:08 and maybe get some ideas,
14:09 but I wasn't quite sure with BB King,
14:10 how much was even around available
14:13 for you to take a look at, archival footage?
14:14 Was there any available, and even like any specific thing
14:17 that you looked at that--
14:17 - It was limited because I think that it was more so focused
14:20 in the 70s, 80s, and further down.
14:23 But, and I'm, obviously I'm playing BB King in the 60s,
14:27 so I didn't get to see anything except pictures,
14:29 but you know, when you think about it,
14:32 people don't really actually act that different.
14:34 So all I had to do was just take some of the through lines,
14:37 and I found this really fascinating guitar tutorial
14:40 that he did, where he kind of broke down how he improvises.
14:44 And I always find that musicians tend to talk
14:47 like they play.
14:48 And so I kind of got a lot of inspiration
14:50 for speech pattern and where he found something more tender,
14:55 or, you know, it kind of slows it down,
14:57 'cause in a song you can listen to it,
14:59 but there's something about the way he explains it,
15:01 he gets really excited about a certain note
15:03 or a certain bend, I don't know.
15:05 And I was like, oh, this is where the pocket sits
15:08 in certain conversations, so yeah.
15:10 - Does that pocket exist with acting, too?
15:12 - Oh, absolutely.
15:13 You know, I think, well, I don't know, it's interesting.
15:17 There's a musicality to it.
15:19 And I tend to, like, I'll pull from anyone.
15:23 Like, say I met you, and I was like, man, I really like,
15:26 you know, the way he talked, and I like the way he,
15:29 you know, nodded, and the way he looks when he's listening.
15:31 I was like, I'm gonna take that,
15:32 and then I'll put it in a movie
15:33 and apply it to a different character.
15:35 - Okay.
15:36 (laughing)
15:37 - He's like, uh-oh. - I want credit.
15:38 (laughing)
15:39 I want residuals.
15:40 - Got a good lawyer?
15:43 - Yeah, no, I do not. - Or has the colonel
15:44 got your back?
15:45 (laughing)
15:46 - Yeah, God, that's so true.
15:46 - I hope I wish you well.
15:47 - That's so true.
15:48 - How much of "Little Richard" was available,
15:50 and what did you, is there a piece of it that you saw
15:52 that really said, like, oh, now I kinda figured out
15:54 who he is?
15:55 - I dove in really deep and dived into all of his interviews,
16:00 his performances, and even his rehearsals.
16:03 And there was one screening rehearsal
16:05 that really resonated to me deeply,
16:07 because it's just him in the theater,
16:10 and there's no audience, there's no band,
16:11 it's just him and the piano.
16:13 And you hear the rasp in his voice,
16:15 which training came from him playing the saxophone as well.
16:18 And you just hear his joy,
16:20 because it was a young Little Richard
16:22 at the age of 20, 21.
16:24 And in the film, I play a young 22-year-old
16:27 Little Richard at Club Handy.
16:28 So that resonated with me and aligned with me
16:31 in a different way, helped me develop the intention
16:35 and the sense of direction.
16:36 (gentle music)
16:40 - I've never been to Cannes either, so.
16:42 (laughing)
16:42 I mean, I got that in common.
16:45 - Oh man, that's a good start.
16:46 - Yeah.
16:47 - You're dressed for the humidity of this conference.
16:49 - I'm from North Carolina.
16:51 - Oh, so you know what this is like.
16:51 - I know better, yes.
16:53 - I didn't feel it until I came back east
16:56 for the first time when I was 20.
16:59 And then I felt humidity for the first time,
17:01 I thought, well, you know, no wonder the pioneers
17:03 kept moving, 'cause they didn't wanna put up.
17:04 It's sticky and there's bugs everywhere.
17:06 I get it, I get it, it's brutal.
17:08 - Have you tried a peanut butter and banana sandwich?
17:10 - Dad, yes.
17:11 - You did?
17:12 - Yes. - How is it?
17:13 - It's fantastic.
17:13 - Is it really? - Have you not?
17:14 - No, I just got here this morning, so I'm going,
17:16 I'm gonna get one tonight at the hotel.
17:17 - Oh yes, absolutely.
17:19 - Change your life?
17:20 - Here I am.
17:21 (laughing)
17:22 Smiling.
17:23 - It's gonna be strange to be in theaters
17:23 opposite a Buzz Lightyear film?
17:25 - How 'bout that?
17:26 Why it's not, actually, I wanted to go head to head
17:30 with Tim Allen, and then they didn't let Tim Allen do it.
17:33 I don't understand that.
17:34 - It's Chris Evans' kid.
17:35 - Ah, yeah, yeah, I know.
17:36 But here's the thing is, just as long as people come back
17:39 to the Motion Picture Theater, don't you,
17:41 I wanna go back into the theater with a bunch of strangers
17:44 and leave with something in common.
17:45 That's what I wanna do.
17:46 And going to see a movie with him,
17:48 I'm looking forward to that.