00:00 Austin Butler is saying how Tom Hanks landed him his next role and how he finally got rid
00:05 of his Elvis accent.
00:06 "Just pour all this energy into learning about World War II."
00:10 "Right. How would Elvis fly a plane?"
00:12 "Yeah, exactly."
00:13 Butler spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his new film, Masters of the Air,
00:17 and says just weeks before Elvis was scheduled to wrap,
00:20 Hanks took Butler to dinner and pitched him the movie.
00:23 "It was one of those no-brainer decisions. You've got Tom Hanks,
00:26 Steven Spielberg and Gary Gatesman. At the time, I really wanted to take some time off,
00:31 but I knew that this opportunity doesn't come up every day, so I leaped in with everything that I
00:35 could." Masters of the Air, set to debut on Apple TV+ on January 26, is a war drama series based on
00:42 Donald L. Miller's Book of the Same Name that follows a group of young fighter pilots who
00:47 target the Nazi regime during World War II. Elsewhere, the actor appeared on The Late Show
00:51 with Stephen Colbert, where he revealed he had to work extra hard to drop his Elvis Presley accent,
00:56 as he only had a week between filming that and his new film.
01:00 "I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis."
01:03 "Oh, wow."
01:03 Butler explained that he faced some challenges once filming wrapped for Baz Luhrmann's Elvis,
01:08 because he dedicated three years of his life to portraying the king of rock and roll.
01:12 "I was just trying to remember who I was. I was trying to remember, you know,
01:15 what I like to do, and all I thought about was Elvis for three years."
01:19 Butler's accent became a topic of conversation for several months following the release of Elvis in
01:24 June of 2022. Fans pointed out that the actor sounded different than his normal speaking voice,
01:30 and instead, very similar to the music legend he portrayed on screen.
01:33 Butler addressed it after his Golden Globe win, noting backstage,
01:37 "I had three years where that was my only focus in life.
01:40 So I'm sure that there's just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way."
01:44 To read Butler's full interview with THR and his thoughts on Dune Part 2, head to THR.com.
01:50 And for the latest entertainment news and updates, keep watching The Hollywood Reporter News.
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