Austin Butler Had to Hire a Dialect Coach to Get Rid of His Elvis Presley Accent

Austin Butler is truly the king (heh) of committing to the bit. During an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on January 24, the actor, who gained tons of praise for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in the 2022 film Elvis, opened up about the challenges he faced while transitioning from the unique role to a much different project: the World War II drama Masters of the Air.

The Apple TV+ miniseries, which Austin began shooting only a week after wrapping three years of filming Elvis, led to the actor seeking the help of a dialogue coach so he could shake off the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll's distinct accent.

“It was a lot,” Austin recalled of the rapid transition into Masters of the Air. “I was just trying to remember who I was, I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years. And then I had that week off and then I flew to London and at that time it was Covid so I’m quarantined for 10 days, so 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 in that film, that was the whole thing,” he added.

During the convo, Austin also recalled the story of how his Elvis costar Tom Hanks, who just so happened to serve as executive producer on Masters of the Air, wound up being the reason he joined the project.

“I was having dinner with Tom Hanks in Australia and he was sort of joking saying, ‘You’re going to lose your mind when you finish this three years of your life focused on this one thing, you’re gonna have to find something else to jump right into right afterward,’” Austin began. “And the other producer Pat McCormick, who is a good friend of mine, he said, ‘Well Tom, find him something to do,’ and then Tom said, ‘Well I’ve got this World War II thing I’m working on.’”

And the rest is—how you say—history! But btw, that “World War II thing” is actually a pretty big freakin' deal lol. Like, not only is Austin in it, but so is Barry Keoghan (aka hot Saltburn guy) and Callum Turner (aka Dua Lipa's kinda sorta boyfriend).

Sooooo do with that intel what you will, bye!!!!!!

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