Austin Butler has revealed that he hired a dialect coach to help him lose his Elvis accent before shooting Masters Of The Air.
During an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the Oscar-nominated actor explained how he only had a week between filming Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic and his new World War II series, so he needed help getting rid of the accent.
“I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis,” Butler said. “I was just trying to remember who I was. I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years. And then I had that week off, and then I flew to London, and at that time it was COVID, so I was quarantined for 10 days. I thought, ‘Alright, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.’”
Masters of the Air, which is based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, follows a group of young fighter pilots who target the Nazi regime during World War II. The Apple TV+ miniseries premiered today (January 26).
Butler noted how he’d dedicated years of his life to playing Elvis, and subsequently couldn’t shake the accent. After the biopic was released in 2022, many fans noted on social media that the actor still sounded similar to the King of Rock and Roll when speaking on press tours and red carpets.
The actor spoke about his accent last year following his win at the 2023 Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Elvis.
“I don’t even think about it. I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I must because I hear it a lot,” he said backstage. “I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time and I had three years where that was my only focus in life. So I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”