Austin Butler revealed that he only had a week between filming Elvis and Masters of the Air, which means he had to work extra hard to drop his Elvis Presley accent.
During a Wednesday night appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Oscar-nominated actor said he “had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis.”
Butler explained that he faced some challenges once filming wrapped for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis because he dedicated three years of his life to portraying the King of Rock and Roll. Once the film was complete, the actor admitted he struggled trying to rediscover himself.
“I was just trying to remember who I was,” the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor said. “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 was quarantined for 10 days. I thought, ‘Alright, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.’”
Masters of the Air is a war drama series, based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, that follows a group of young fighter pilots who target the Nazi regime during World War II. The Apple TV+ miniseries is set to debut on Jan. 26.
Butler’s accent became a topic of conversation for several months following the release of Elvis in June 2022. Some fans continued to point out on social media that the actor sounded very similar to the music legend he portrayed onscreen.
Butler addressed his accent again last year following his win at the 2023 Golden Globes for best actor in a drama for his role in Elvis.
“I don’t even think about it. I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I must because I hear it a lot,” he said backstage at the time. “I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time and I had three years where that was my only focus in life. So I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”
