Portraying Elvis Presley on screen is a huge responsibility. Apparently, the ‘Elvis’ star Austin Butler had doubts before the film’s release, so much so that he even thought of bidding farewell to his acting career if the biopic ended up being a failure.
Biopics are risky tasks for actors — they have to ‘be’ that artist rather than just trying to impersonate them. If they will portray huge music icons, it gets even more challenging. Rami Malek handled this pretty well when he starred as Freddie Mercury in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ and Austin Butler sought his advice before getting ready for his Elvis Presley role.
In the end, Austin Butler made a massive breakthrough with ‘Elvis.’ Following the biopic’s release, he won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Besides, the film got a 20-minute standing ovation from the audience at Cannes and made Priscilla Presley shed a few tears.
However, getting to that point wasn’t easy for Austin Butler. He prepared so much for his Elvis Presley portrayal, but he still had doubts about the biopic’s success. According to what the actor told SiriusXM, he didn’t expect so much of a positive audience reaction and thought of never working again as an actor if it didn’t go well.
Here is what Austin Butler said about the success of ‘Elvis’:
“[It was] such a tremendous relief. Yeah, the other thing that I keep coming back to is remembering what it felt like to film it and remembering when it felt like when we were preparing for it. I mean, it’s far exceeded my expectations on an audience level and on a what-our-peers-feel sort of level.
I really did know that if it didn’t go well — and there were so many ways it could have gone wrong, there were so many traps you could fall into, so I had this terror the whole time. If it didn’t go well, I’d probably never work again as an actor. It’d be a very different outcome, so I feel very fortunate.”
So, Austin Butler was concerned about the reception of ‘Elvis’ even when he was preparing for his role. However, his fears turned out to be wrong when the biopic gained huge commercial success. As it seems, the actor didn’t expect ‘Elvis’ to be so appreciated and seeing the audience reaction was a huge relief for him.
