VMAN 49 COVER STAR: AUSTIN BUTLER

Hollywood’s new obsession had to play someone else to find himself. After a 12-minute standing ovation at Cannes, it seems the world has found him too

At the time of this interview in April, Austin Butler had not yet seen Elvis, the film that would make him a household name. “I know that the first time I see it, well, I will never get to see it for the first time again,” he says through the computer screen. He’s sitting on a couch in Los Angeles, sporting a plain white t-shirt, his hair both messy and coiffed. As anyone with a pulse and Internet connection knows, his voice is eerily similar to the King of Rock and Roll’s. It’s not obvious whether he’s waiting to see the film out of nerves or excitement.

This patience, tied to the 31-year-old actor’s diligence, is part of what piqued director Baz Luhrmann’s interest in the first place. After receiving an audition tape from Butler in which he was wearing a white bathrobe, the actor’s face a “flood of tears” as Luhrmann put it, the visionary filmmaker got a phone call from Denzel Washington, whom he’d never met. Washington had starred alongside Butler in Broadway’s The Iceman Cometh and told Luhrmann that the young actor’s work ethic was unbelievable. This won the director’s favor over other contenders, including Harry Styles, whom he refrained from casting because, as he told Australian radio station Fitzy and Wippa, “He’s already Harry Styles. He’s already an icon.”

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