Last 12 months, Austin Butler dominated the headlines for his efficiency as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic Elvis.
The actor made no secret of the grueling work that he’d put into the function, which was eerily predicted by his former girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens months earlier than he was forged.
Austin revealed that he’d been informed up to now that he bears a resemblance to the music icon, however when Vanessa informed him that he needed to play Elvis sometime, he figured that it was “a long shot.”
So when Austin’s agent informed him that Baz was making an Elvis film a month later, Austin instantly employed motion, singing, and dialect coaches to arrange for his audition.
After a rigorous five-month audition course of, Austin flew to Australia for filming just for manufacturing to be shut down as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The star refused the invitation to be flown again to Los Angeles, and as an alternative spent the subsequent six months alone within the overseas nation, totally immersing himself in all issues Elvis.
In reality, Austin informed GQ that he turned his residence into what was successfully a “detective scene” as he completely researched each facet of the singer’s life.
By the time that filming lastly ended, a lot later than scheduled on account of the pandemic, Austin mentioned that he’d misplaced contact of his personal id having spent so lengthy dedicating himself to doing the function of Elvis justice.
But filming didn’t simply take a psychological toll on Austin, and the day after manufacturing ended he was rushed to hospital as a result of his physique had begun “shutting down,” leaving him bedridden for every week.
Fast-forward to 2023, and there’s one other Elvis within the constructing, with Euphoria star Jacob Elordi enjoying the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll in A24’s upcoming Priscilla.
As the title of the film suggests, Priscilla is targeted on Elvis’s spouse, Priscilla Presley, performed by Cailee Spaeny. Priscilla met Elvis when she was simply 14 years previous and he was 24, and so they bought married seven years later earlier than divorcing in 1972.
The film, directed by Sofia Coppola, is predicated on Priscilla’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, and on the subject of prepping for the function, it’s truthful to say that Jacob’s course of couldn’t have been extra totally different to Austin’s.
In reality, throughout an look on Monday’s the Tonight Show, 26-year-old Jacob admitted that the whole lot he knew about Elvis previous to being forged was from the 2002 Disney movie Lilo and Stitch.
And, highlighting the distinction between him and Austin proper off the bat, Jacob kickstarted the interview by saying: “[Elvis] wasn’t on my list of people to play.”
Jimmy Fallon then requested if Jacob had been an Elvis fan rising up, to which the actor bluntly replied: “No, the most I knew of Elvis was in Lilo and Stitch.” As Jimmy and the viewers expressed their shock, Jacob then insisted: “Which is a lot!”
The Australian star additionally had a reasonably informal strategy to the audition course of, explaining that he watched one clip of Elvis, briefly seemed over the traces, after which shot a self-tape to submit in simply two takes.
“I watched this clip of him when he came back from the army in Germany,” Jacob started. “I read the lines for, like, 15 minutes then shot two takes, not thinking that it would go anywhere.”
And, after being forged, relatively than prioritizing embodying the real-life Elvis by his efficiency, Jacob had totally different plans.
“The whole time I was trying to take it like I was making Blue Valentine or something,” he mentioned, referencing the 2010 film that chronicles a pair’s love story. “A straight-up relationship drama, without Elvis or Priscilla, for Sofia Coppola. That was the goal.”
Responding to this interview, many couldn’t assist however evaluate Jacob’s strategy to enjoying Elvis to Austin’s, with one particular person writing on a Reddit discussion board: “On one hand we have Austin Butler staying in Elvis character for an unreasonably long time, and on the other we have this.”
Another joked: “Austin Butler just fell to his knees at Walmart.” Someone else mused: “I see he’s doing the reverse Austin Butler Oscars approach.”
While one other consumer highlighted the important thing motive for the totally different strategies, mentioning that Austin’s film was extra closely targeted on Elvis as a performer and thus required much more analysis. They additionally identified that, due to the pandemic, Austin ended up caught within the function for for much longer than Jacob.
“That’s comparing apples and oranges,” they started. “These are 2 very different performances for drastically different filmmakers. One was a product of pandemic delay and required singing and dancing, another required more serious approach. Jacob didn’t have to stay as Elvis for 3 years because of Covid, he only had to do it for slightly longer than 30 days.”
Meanwhile, whereas many older followers had been left shocked by Jacob’s remark about Lilo and Stitch, his early publicity to Elvis seems to be frequent amongst Gen Z.
Gen Z refers to anybody born from 1997 by 2012, with Jacob a Gen Z elder having been born in ’97.
“As another 97 baby, I relate. He’s actually very real for this! Also Lilo and Stitch is peak cinema to me🤌🏾,” one particular person commented.
“Honestly same. We were born in the same year so that tracks for us 97ers,” one other agreed. One extra wrote: “I’m not familiar with this man, but I am familiar with learning about Elvis from Lilo.”
“He’s my age and honestly…. Lilo & Stitch and Full House really shaped my Elvis knowledge,” another person added.
And whereas it could be exhausting to imagine, Elvis really is a core a part of the 21-year-old Disney film, with the corporate formally collaborating with Elvis’s property throughout manufacturing.
The idea is alleged to have served two totally different functions; the primary was to focus on how the film’s protagonist Lilo is totally different to different ladies her age due to her curiosity in older music, like Elvis. The different was as a result of the film is about in Hawaii, the place lots of Elvis’s most iconic movies had been based mostly.
No lower than 5 Elvis songs function within the 75-minute film, and Elvis’s picture is even used when Lilo holds up a poster of the singer to show Stitch, an alien, find out how to be a “model citizen.”
In a key montage within the movie, Lilo tells Stitch: “Elvis Presley was a model citizen, I’ve compiled a list of his traits for you to practice. Number one is dancing.”
The two characters then dance in a stereotypical “Elvis” trend, with Lilo then saying: “Let’s move onto step two; Elvis played guitar.”
She then offers Stitch a guitar and teaches him find out how to play, with the scene ending with Stitch wearing a reproduction of Elvis’s iconic white jumpsuit and carrying the star’s signature black quiff whereas enjoying guitar and dancing.
Elvis’s property ended up being so concerned within the film that the night time earlier than its premiere, Graceland hosted a luau occasion in celebration of its launch.
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