Austin Butler Enlisted The Help Of A Dialect Coach To Remove Elvis Accent

Austin Butler starred in the 2022 film Elvis 

32-year-old actor Austin Butler portrayed the King of Rock ‘n Roll, Elvis Presley, in the 2022 Warner Bros Pictures film Elvis. Butler’s work was widely praised and he earned a Golden Globe Award as well as an Oscar nomination for his performance. 

Lisa Marie Presley, the late daughter of Elvis, said: 

“Austin Butler channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully. In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and FINALLY done accurately and respectfully.”

 

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Austin Butler began filming Masters Of The Air one week after wrapping Elvis 

Filming for Elvis lasted three years and just one week after wrapping, Austin Butler began production for the war drama Masters of the Air which was released today (Jan 26.) Butler recalls his costar Tom Hanks telling him over dinner: 

“You’re going to lose your mind when you finish this three years of your life focused on this one thing, you’re gonna have to find something else to jump right into right afterward.” 

It was that conversation that led to Butler becoming involved in the World War II mini-series, which was co-produced by Hanks. 

Austin Butler enlisted the help of a dialect coach to help him transition out of his Elvis character

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday (Jan 24), Austin Butler shared that the quick turnaround between projects required the help of a dialogue coach so he didn’t sound like the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll on the new series. Butler recalled: 

“I was just trying to remember who I was, I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years.” 

Butler’s acting coach, Howard Fine, gave PEOPLE further context and explained: 

“What happens is in order to prepare, especially when you’ve got to do an accent, if the actor just practices their dialogue with the accent, you can really hear them working for it. The correct way to work on an accent is to speak that way 24/7 until it becomes second nature.”

See Austin Butler’s conversation on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in the video below!