Austin Butler reveals he’d wake up at 3am in a fit of ‘terror’ over ‘daunting’ task of playing Elvis

Austin Butler revealed that he stayed in Australia after COVID-19 halted production on Elvis and spent the lockdown further preparing for his critically acclaimed performance.

The 31-year-old actor during an appearance Monday on Jimmy Kimmel Live recalled how co-star Tom Hanks, 66, tested positive for coronavirus in March 2020.

‘We were, I think, three days before we started shooting. So I had been preparing for a year and a half,” said Austin, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of Elvis Presley.

‘We didn’t know what it was. We had these scientists come beforehand and tell us what they thought it was. So we were all first worried about him and [Tom’s wife] Rita. And then once we knew they were okay, the studio called the movie force majeure, which essentially means they don’t have to pay anyone. The movie is ready,” she said.

The California native said Australian director Baz Luhrmann, 60, told him he should return to the United States.

‘But I knew, I had been so focused for so long, I knew I would lose my mind if I came back here. Because, you know, real life starts to flood you and you lose focus. So I stayed,” Austin said.

Austin said that during the quarantine he “papered” his entire apartment with images of Elvis from different eras.

“I had these compilations of her voice that I would hear every day, her laugh, different songs,” he said.

Austin said it turned into a period where he worked with dialect coaches, singing coaches, a movement coach and a karate instructor.

The actor said that he was in quarantine for a few months before he was allowed to leave the apartment.

‘And then once I was allowed out of the apartment, you know, I usually woke up every day around 3 or 4 in the morning with this terror. It was such a daunting thing. And I was really guided by my terror really,” Austin said.

Austin said he would look at how to sing a line in a song or how a certain word should be pronounced.

And one thing was also his laugh. How do you laugh? So I made a compilation of his laugh,” Austin said.

‘When I was finally able to leave the apartment, I was living on the beach in Australia, and I would walk the beach for hours with my headphones on laughing like Elvis. It seemed that this man was absolutely out of his mind. There were surfers looking at me and saying what was going on. That was my life,’ Austin said.

Jimmy, 55, asked Austin, since he had become an Elvis authority with all his research, what was the weirdest thing he did.

I could talk to you about this for days. But the first thing that comes to mind is that I remember reading and thinking, “That’s kind of weird.” She got really into horses for a while. And apparently he also loved hot dog buns. He would take the bag of hot dog buns, tie them to the saddle horn and eat them by themselves while he rode the horse,” Austin said.

Austin also shared that he was looking forward to Tuesday’s Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, after being nominated for Best Performance in a Motion Picture – Drama.

“I remember, being in Hollywood today, it made me think about how for so many years, I would drive from Orange County with my mom and go to hundreds and hundreds of auditions, booking nothing. Going to acting class, driving two hours back, and all of a sudden sitting here with Jimmy Kimmel and going to the Golden Globes,” Austin said.

The actor also revealed that the test footage Baz shared six months ago of him singing on YouTube was actually just wardrobe test footage and he wasn’t supposed to sing that day.