Oscar Nominees 2023: Austin Butler Talks Elvis, Getting Into Character And Colonel Tom

The ELVIS star is experiencing a whole hunka burning awards-season excitement

Elvis is a film about Presley’s relationship with Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). How would you describe that partnership?

It's a really tricky relationship to sum up, and I think that’s what a lot of this film is trying to explore. Elvis was really famous locally, but he wasn’t famous globally. The Colonel was a master at marketing, so it’s sort of a Svengali-like relationship. Elvis wanted to do certain things like tour the world, and he wasn’t able to because of the Colonel. I've got a lot of feelings about it. There's a lot of different ways of approaching it.

What were some of your ways into the character?

One of the keys was that later on in his life he didn’t want to fall asleep in a room by himself...

Read the full Q&A with Oscar Nominee Austin Butler

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