Q&A: Austin Butler On What ‘Elvis’ Taught Him About Fear
etcanada.comAustin Butler, you may have heard, has taken a bit of flack for sounding too much like Elvis now that he’s no longer, um, Elvis.
The 31-year-old breakout star of Baz Luhrmann’s flamboyant biopic even had to be defended by fellow Oscar nominee Angela Bassett, who’s explained that she, too, had a hard time shaking the Tina Turner vibe after playing her back in 1993. READ MORE: Austin Butler Pays Tribute To Lisa Marie Presley After BAFTA Win: ‘It’s A Bittersweet Time’ In any case, Butler says there’s something far more significant that’s remained with him since making “Elvis”: a new relationship with fear.
The challenge of playing an icon who’s been imitated as often as Presley was so great, he says, that he suffered from “impostor syndrome” and could have been felled by the fear — fear that kept him from sleeping well for two years, he adds — had he not learned to use it as a “compass,” in his words.
Now, he says, he asks himself: “What am I terrified of today?” And then he tries to step toward it, rather than away. Butler, whose Golden Globe from January now has to share shelf space with the BAFTA from February, looks like one of the key favourites to add an Oscar to that shelf, come March.
Read more on etcanada.com