Austin Butler Reveals He "Went Home in Tears" After Being Heckled for an 'Elvis' Performance
Baz Luhrmann had execs purposely make fun of the actor’s singing.
Austin Butler has received rave reviews for his performance in Elvis, which took a lot out of him, especially emotionally. During the process of getting comfortable playing the King of Rock n’ Roll, director Baz Luhrmann tried a filmmaking experiment in which he had others make fun of Butler while he performed as Presley. As a result, the actor went home crying.
“Well, when I was on my first day in the recording studio, Baz wanted me to get as close to performing as possible,” Butler told VMAN for his latest cover story. “He had all the executives and everybody from RCA, who were back in the offices, he brought them into the recording studio and he goes, ‘I want you all to sit facing Austin,’ and he told them to heckle me. So then they were making fun of me and stuff while I was singing.”
Butler made it clear that Luhrmann had no ill intentions while doing this experiment. Instead, he wanted Butler to grasp a better understanding of Presley, who faced similar criticism throughout his career. Fortunately, Butler was able to empathize with him.
Butler continued, “When we were filming this moment when Elvis first goes on stage and he’s getting heckled by the audience, I knew what that felt like. I went home in tears that night. I really did.”
For more on Butler’s journey as Elvis Presley, learn about his humble beginnings in Hollywood here.
