Baz Luhrmann Reveals The Reason Why Harry Styles Wasn't Cast as Elvis Presley in 'Elvis'

Baz Luhrmann is opening up about the main reason why Harry Styles wasn’t chosen to portray Elvis Presley in the upcoming Elvis movie.

The 59-year-old director spoke on Fitzy & Wippa and was asked about Harry going out for the part, that was ultimately given to Austin Butler.

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When Fitzy brought up the other hopefuls for the lead role, which included Harry and Miles Teller, Baz shared his reasoning for not choosing them for the part.

“I don’t audition,” Baz clarified. “I do these really rich workshops. I’ll talk about Harry only because Harry said it himself just recently.”

He added that “Harry is really talented actor. I would work on something with him…” however, “the real issue with Harry is, he’s Harry Styles. He’s already an icon.”

“I think Harry and I came to a place, genuinely I mean, he was just desperate to put the suit on and explore,” Baz continued. “He’s such a great spirit and I have nothing but great things to say about Harry Styles.”

Baz then revealed that there was another kind of connection to Elvis with Austin.

“The thing about Aust[in] was that he will tell you himself, I didn’t pick him it’s as if he was drawn like the role drew them in because he was almost born to play it,” he says. “You know, we can talk about it now, he like loses his mom at the same age that Elvis did. He sends a video to me with this thing and… He just happened like two years non stop living and breathing as Elvis. He’s now going through a sort of like deprogramming thing because he’s been a long time since he’s known who he was.”

You can watch the full trailer for Elvis now!