Austin Butler recently joined the Sunday TODAY Show with Willie Geist and talked about his Oscar-nominated performance of Elvis Presley. The actor also opened up about his relationship with the late Lisa Marie and his realization of how her father’s portrayal weighed on her. He explained:
“I felt so much responsibility to them, for their family, and for Elvis’ [Presley] legacy. When I finally got to meet Lisa Marie, we’re looking into each other’s eyes, and I felt so much love for her. I know it weighed on her a lot how misunderstood he was. I just wish that she was here to celebrate with us.”
Butler reminisced about how he started to get to know Elvis for his portrayal of the singer by adding:
“The idea of getting to explore the life of somebody who had the life that Elvis had, who has either been so misunderstood and now is simply a Halloween costume for people or he’s idolized to a level where he becomes larger than life.”
doubted himself during the shooting of the 2022 film. He expressed:
“There were many times it felt impossible, and I didn’t feel like I was enough, and I kept waiting for somebody to look at me and go, ‘You don’t belong here, get out of here,’ and Baz [Luhrmann] had this faith in me.”
Although Austin questioned his performance multiple times, Lisa had posted on Instagram and praised the actor for his performance before the movie was released last year. She wrote:
“Austin Butler channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully. In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and finally done accurately and respectfully.”
You can watch Austin Butler’s appearance on the Sunday TODAY Show with Willie Geist below.
