Baz Luhrmann and Austin Butler look back on their wild ride making ‘Elvis’
Elvis filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and star Austin Butler bonded through an extended casting process, Covid lockdown in Australia, the film’s eventual shoot, and its long aftermath since Cannes last year. The pair talk to Screen.
When director and co-writer Baz Luhrmann conceived his biopic Elvis, he envisioned it as an Amadeus-like epic about a petty little man, Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks), who narrates the story of a far greater talent, the superstar singer he would help bring to prominence — Elvis Presley. “His gift is not song,” Luhrmann says over Zoom from Los Angeles about Parker. “His gift is the sell.” Luhrmann’s artistry, of course, is that he combines the gifts of both men: he makes films full of song and energy and movement, proving to be the ultimate showman.
Since its rollicking debut at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, Elvis has been one of the few non-franchise films of the pandemic era to lure adult audiences back to the big screen, grossing $287m worldwide for Warner Bros. It has also earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture for Luhrmann and his fellow producers (who include creative and life partner Catherine Martin), and best actor for Austin Butler, a relative newcomer so determined to land the title role that he consumed himself in research, refusing to take any other auditions during the casting process so that his focus was not diluted.
Butler took time out from being feted at Santa Barbara International Film Festival to join his director on a video call to discuss the sometimes-bumpy road travelled to make Elvis a reality. But where Presley and Parker often clashed, Butler and Luhrmann enjoyed a harmonious rapport that continues to this day, their conversation filled with laughter and happy memories.
After the two of you first met, it took five months before Austin was cast officially. Was that time spent convincing Warner Bros that he was the right person to play Elvis Presley?
Baz Luhrmann: I can probably force anyone’s hand on almost any subject because one carries a certain amount of weight, but I never want to do that. I want to believe that, through process, I’ve got everyone believing [in my vision], because if everybody believes then we’re all collectively going down the same road at the same time. I can say now that the moment Aus came in, he was down the Elvis road — he was simultaneously very humble, very sensitive, but incredibly focused. I remember in the workshop process going, “Everything’s great, but what is the depth of Austin Butler’s ability to tap into rage?” I got this little scene we scribbled up where [Presley] confronts the Colonel down in the garage. Austin had the idea he might have a gun on him — Elvis would pull guns now and then — and I think I gave Austin a brush or a comb…
