Austin Butler Recalls His First Meeting With Tom Hanks Ahead of 'Elvis' Role

Austin Butler said that he was “intimidated” when he got a chance to meet his Elvis co-star Tom Hanks. However, the story had a very sweet ending.

The 31-year-old star received endless praise for his interpretation of Elvis Presley in the movie, which saw Tom playing the music legend’s manage Colonel Tom Parker.

He opened up about their first meeting, which took place at director Baz Lurhmann‘s house in Australia, during a recent interview.

Read more about Austin Butler and Tom Hanks’ first interaction…

While on The Graham Norton Show, Austin shared his memories.

“Whenever you meet somebody that you admired for a long time you hope that they’re going to be warm to you, but you never really know,” he said. “And somebody like Tom, he’s been doing this for so long. And he’s such a master of his craft and so I was intimidated.”

However, Tom quickly assuaged his nerves, recalling that he gave him “the biggest bear hug.”

They also related over their nerves, which made them “colleagues.”

“At one point he said, ‘You know I was at the studio earlier today, and I was choosing which doors I was going to throw up outside of for the first couple of weeks.’ And I said, ‘Why? You nervous?” And he goes, ‘Yeah. I’m so nervous.’ I said, ‘You’re nervous? I’m terrified,’” he said.

Austin also broke his silence about how his voice was affected by the role.

Press play on Austin Butler’s interview segment below…