Austin Butler spent a lot of his profitable Oscar marketing campaign for “Elvis” referring to an unnamed “buddy” who had inspired him to hunt out the position. Intrepid TikTok customers who famous this “buddy” was doubtless his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens can now relaxation simple.
“I used to be with my companion on the time,” Butler mentioned in a Tuesday interview with The Los Angeles Occasions’ Mark Olsen, who requested if he meant Hudgens, who the actor dated for almost 9 years up till early 2020.
“That’s proper,” Butler mentioned. “We’d been collectively for thus lengthy and she or he had this kind of clairvoyant second and so I actually, owe her loads for believing in me.”
Each actors have shared the story, though Butler didn’t specify that Hudgens was the “buddy” in query.
“Final December, we had been driving alongside … and an Elvis Presley Christmas music got here on,” Hudgens mentioned on “Stay with Kelly and Ryan” in 2019. “He’d simply dyed his hair darkish … and I used to be him and he was singing alongside, and I used to be like: ‘Babe, you might want to play Elvis.’”
On the time, Butler had dyed black hair because of his profitable audition for Quentin Tarantino’s “As soon as Upon a Time…in Hollywood.”
“Then in January, he was sitting on the piano,” Hudgens continued. “And he’s enjoying and he’s singing and I’m like, ‘I don’t know the way, however you might want to work out how one can play Elvis. Like, I don’t know the way we get the rights or what we do, however you might want to play him.’”
Throughout a current Hollywood Reporter roundtable interview with fellow actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Fraser — each of whom at the moment are vying for Oscars as effectively — Butler referred to Hudgens as his “buddy” when regaling them with the story.
“The month earlier than I heard that [director Baz Luhrmann] was making the film, I used to be going to have a look at Christmas lights with a buddy, and there was an Elvis Christmas music on the radio and I used to be singing alongside, and my buddy appeared over at me and goes, ‘You’ve received to play Elvis,’” he mentioned.
“I mentioned, ‘Oh, that’s such a protracted shot,’” he mentioned, including that his buddy introduced it up a few weeks later whereas he was enjoying the piano. The buddy mentioned, in accordance with Butler, “‘I’m severe. You gotta work out how one can get the rights to a script.’ Then my agent known as and mentioned, ‘So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis movie.’”
Butler obtained an Oscar finest actor nod for “Elvis” earlier this week. He known as his nomination “bittersweet” as a result of Lisa Marie Presley — Elvis’ daughter, whom the actor grew near in the course of the manufacturing of the movie — died earlier this month. Whereas he’s positive to thank her ought to he win on March 12, whether or not he mentions Hudgens stays to be seen.