After years spent entrenched in the whole lot Elvis, Austin Butler acquired some invaluable recommendation from co-star Tom Hanks about the right way to depart Graceland behind.
Because the Oscar-winning actor informed him, “‘You will have immersed your self so deeply in Elvis that, to your psychological well being, it could be sensible to go straight into one thing else,’” Butler recalled in a current interview with The Instances of London. “‘For those who simply leap off the practice, you might need emotional whiplash… and, you already know, I’ve obtained this factor I’m producing.’” That very challenge was AppleTV+ miniseries Masters of the Air, a follow-up to World Struggle II epics Band of Brothers and The Pacific by which Butler performs Main Gale Cleven alongside Barry Keoghan and Callum Turner.
Butler solely had per week to himself between wrapping manufacturing on Elvis in Australia and starting Masters of the Air in London, he beforehand informed Self-importance Truthful for our 2023 Hollywood cowl. “It was a—trying again—‘what was I pondering?’ type of factor,” Butler mentioned. “Nevertheless it was an important group of individuals and I’m actually lucky I obtained to be part of it as a result of I believe it’s going to be an important present. However for my very own sanity, I believe I may have used some extra time to simply decompress.”
After that sequence, Butler went on to roles in The Bikeriders and Dune: Half Two, each movies out later this 12 months that required a reset. “I used to be stretching myself and residing inside the sneakers of someone else for a bit that’s very, very completely different from Elvis,” Butler informed VF. “I by no means wish to say I shed Elvis or washed it off as a result of it makes it sound like one thing that I wish to depart me. It was such a present and it was such a tremendous time. However so far as the factor the place you’re all consumed with one thing, my thoughts couldn’t take into consideration something that wasn’t Elvis associated—and I didn’t wish to for over two years.”
As Butler defined to The Instances, his Oscar-nominated efficiency in Elvis was a once-in-a-career endeavor. It made him “go to the very edge of what’s attainable, and never each expertise shall be like that,” the actor mentioned. “I don’t suppose I’ll ever have an expertise like that once more, but when I’ve to actually dig, it makes me really feel alive.”
