The inspirational co-star Austin Butler called “the godfather of acting”
Occasionally, when you’re watching a movie, you’re aware of witnessing the birth of a true star.
You could be at the cinema, or perhaps streaming from the comfort of your home, but there are certain moments that are very obviously transformational in the fortunes of the actor onscreen. That was certainly the case with Austin Butler in the 2022 biopic Elvis.
Specifically, that moment comes when Butler performs the show-stopping musical number ‘If I Can Dream’ from Elvis, the 1968 comeback special concert television movie. So closely is the original tune represented, Butler belting the enormous song while resplendent in a white suit against a huge ‘ELVIS’ backdrop, that you can barely tell the actor from the legendary singer.
Personally, I can vividly remember being in the cinema surrounded by people. As the song came to a stirring crescendo, spines shivered, and there were genuine gasps from the seats in front of the big screen. One woman exclaimed out loud: “Oh my goodness”. It was clear from that moment that Butler would be on his way to bigger things and that he’d be scooping up awards for his portrayal, which proved to be the case when he won a Golden Globe and a Bafta and was nominated for an Oscar.
He’s since built on that success by taking on various projects, including a lead role in the Band of Brothers follow-up, Masters of the Air, produced by Tom Hanks, and as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve’s sandy sci-fi sequel Dune 2.
Elsewhere, he starred with Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy as part of a motorcycle gang for The Bikeriders, and has already tucked a Quentin Tarantino project under his belt with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
It’s all a far cry from his early beginnings as a Disney kid with roles alongside Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana and then as Jamie Lynn Spears’ love interest in a Nickelodeon show called Zoe 101.
He continued to make kids and teenage TV, including a High School Musical spinoff, before he trod the boards in a play called Death of the Author in Los Angeles. His theatre work led to more mature roles and an appearance on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh, which also starred movie legend Denzel Washington, someone Butler refers to as “the godfather of acting”.
Of performing opposite Washington, he told Backstage, “It changed my perception of myself and my abilities. Something Denzel told me is, ‘There is no stage acting or film acting; there is the truth’. Human beings do really broad things in everyday life. Sometimes, they do very subtle things. You can do either onstage or onscreen. That freed me up to realise all of the things I was learning onstage, I could take them back into film.”
That job with Washington in New York lit a fire in Butler and made him “fall in love with acting again”. From there, he joined the cast of the Tarantino film, in a small role but one that nevertheless allowed him to share screen time with icons of cinema like Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The actor can currently be seen with Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, and Pedro Pascal in Ari Aster’s Western update, Eddington, which tells the story of a small town in America during the Covid-19 crisis, following a mayor and sheriff facing off when they are unable to work out the best plan against the virus.
