Austin Butler & Tom Hanks Open Up About the Pressure of Being Cast in 'Elvis'

Austin Butler poses with Olivia DeJonge at the SiriusXM Town Hall event for their film Elvis at Soundstage at Graceland on Monday (June 13) in Memphis, Tennessee.

Also in attendance at the event was director Baz Luhrmann and fellow cast member Tom Hanks, who joined Austin in discussing the pressure that came along with accepting a role in the film.

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“Playing Elvis in a movie that’s called Elvis is playing playing Buddha in a movie called Buddha,” Tom, 65, began. “You’ve got some big blue suede shoes to fill.”

He added that it was rare he got to see Austin outside of the set, as the entire cast and crew had to follow strict COVID-19 protocols.

“So when we were working, I would be on the set ready to go… When he finally came in it was like you couldn’t take your eyes off this guy. There he was, already Elvis incarnate,” the actor recalled. “But there was one point where I’m in my flip flops and he’s in his sweatpants and we were going to our cars or something like that, and we had a moment. It wasn’t long, but we locked eyes and in each other’s eyes we saw the deeply rooted fear and terror of what we had taken on.”

“I remember you saying, ‘I was at the studio today and I was picking the door that I was going to throw up outside,’” Austin chimed in while Tom laughed. “And I said, ‘Well, are you nervous?’ And you go, ‘I’m terrified.’”

“I said, ‘You’re terrified! I’m dead scared,’” he concluded, as Tom quipped, “I know Buddha, I know.”

Austin recently explained why his speaking voice still sounds like Elvis, despite having finished filming.