Austin Butler is saying how Tom Hanks landed him his next role and how he finally got rid of his 'Elvis' accent. Butler spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his new film 'Masters of the Air' and says just weeks before 'Elvis' was scheduled to wrap, Hanks took Butler to dinner and pitched him the movie.
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00:00 Austin Butler is saying how Tom Hanks landed him his next role and how he finally got rid
00:05 of his Elvis accent.
00:06 "Just pour all this energy into learning about World War II."
00:10 "Right. How would Elvis fly a plane?"
00:12 "Yeah, exactly."
00:13 Butler spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his new film, Masters of the Air,
00:17 and says just weeks before Elvis was scheduled to wrap,
00:20 Hanks took Butler to dinner and pitched him the movie.
00:23 "It was one of those no-brainer decisions. You've got Tom Hanks,
00:26 Steven Spielberg and Gary Gatesman. At the time, I really wanted to take some time off,
00:31 but I knew that this opportunity doesn't come up every day, so I leaped in with everything that I
00:35 could." Masters of the Air, set to debut on Apple TV+ on January 26, is a war drama series based on
00:42 Donald L. Miller's Book of the Same Name that follows a group of young fighter pilots who
00:47 target the Nazi regime during World War II. Elsewhere, the actor appeared on The Late Show
00:51 with Stephen Colbert, where he revealed he had to work extra hard to drop his Elvis Presley accent,
00:56 as he only had a week between filming that and his new film.
01:00 "I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis."
01:03 "Oh, wow."
01:03 Butler explained that he faced some challenges once filming wrapped for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis,
01:08 because he dedicated three years of his life to portraying the king of rock and roll.
01:12 "I was just trying to remember who I was. I was trying to remember, you know,
01:15 what I like to do, and all I thought about was Elvis for three years."
01:19 Butler's accent became a topic of conversation for several months following the release of Elvis in
01:24 June of 2022. Fans pointed out that the actor sounded different than his normal speaking voice,
01:30 and instead, very similar to the music legend he portrayed on screen.
01:33 Butler addressed it after his Golden Globe win, noting backstage,
01:37 "I had three years where that was my only focus in life.
01:40 So I'm sure that there's just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way."
01:44 To read Butler's full interview with THR and his thoughts on Dune Part 2, head to THR.com.
01:50 And for the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.
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