firstly i absolutely loved the film that is great i mean thank you thank you it's exciting
it's it's it's what we come to expect from from films of yours i was wondering i suppose i know
you're a fan of elvis and that you've clearly done lots of research and i read that you you
read extensively to decide i suppose what era to pick what angles to pick
why did you decide that now was it was a good time to unleash elvis onto the world well i think
really the big motivation was to sort of as i do because i really make films will say well what can
be useful now and i didn't really want to do so much of biopic i was a fan when i was a kid yeah
but i love this idea of taking a historical figure and using their life to explore a bigger idea now
you know where we are is a direct result of america in the 50s 60s and the 70s
and you you look at pop culture elvis is at the center of america in the 50s 60s and the
70s for the good the bad and the ugly in every possible way yeah and the other thing is this
whole idea of right now about five years ago when i thought oh i've got to do this yeah
the whole idea of kind of the cell you know the say anything the the merchandise it the
the the you know what's the truth and what's not now that sounds a bit high for looting but
basically elvis was just a really great life to explore where we are right now yeah and everybody
thinks they can do it thank you very much yeah they do oh it's impression yeah and they can
they can they can i mean how was that they they do i'd have read for it yeah you were great but
how did you know you found your elvis in austin well
i i've told straight a bit but i think he found me and us can talk more about that but but i
kept saying to myself unless i've i kind of thought i will never really find someone
who could play elvis so luckily i probably won't have to make the movie because it's too ambitious
it'll never happen and then and then this amazing tape turned up and maybe you should talk about
the tape because i only learnt the truth about this tape because it was an extraordinary tape
of a young man in a bathrobe playing unchained melody which is a giant thing and and and weeping
but not acting it wasn't acting weeping and i just i was like what is what is this yeah so maybe you
talk about what it was well for me from from the outset it was
what you're talking about these impersonations of elvis i wasn't fascinated by that i was fascinated
by behind all that behind either as you were saying yesterday the halloween costume of elvis
or the godlike figure of elvis where people go to tupelo to the house where he was born and
they kissed the floor because they revere him so much it was it was stripping all of that back and
finding his humanity and so when i first started before we'd ever met i i my uh wonderful agent he
said but has seen some of your acting but you got to send uh something of you singing yeah and uh
and so i was i was trying to mull it over and think what should i send and
i thought okay well maybe i'll do something from his first film so i sang love me tender and i was
in my bedroom and i sang this song and i i you know i studied the footage over and over and i i
played it back after i filmed it and the notes were good the inflections were there but it was
an impersonation yes it felt external yeah and so i didn't send it and i was kind of dejected
by that i was i thought ah man how do i can i do this how do i approach this what's my way in and
um i've been watching every documentary and and reading at that point it was still the beginning
process so i was working my way through the books about his life and and there was this one detail
the fact that that it hit me like a freight train the fact that his mom died when he was 23
and that she was his best friend because that was exactly my experience my mom was my best friend uh
and she passed away when i was 23. and that was one of those details that is it just gives you
chills because you go it's it's identical and uh and it's something i never knew about elvis
and so i could connect that was the one that was probably the very first key into his humanity
and so i'd heard that information and for whatever reason i i had this dream a couple
nights after the love me tender tape that i i had this dream that my mom was alive but dying again
and i woke up in a cold sweat and i just felt sick and i felt so heartbroken again um and i
i thought either it's going to be an awful day or i can try to do something with this and at
this point elvis was the only thing that was on my mind and so i thought what would he do and
he he put his emotion into song and i didn't know what song to sing and i i didn't really feel like
taping something but i thought you know this is this is a this is the most truthful emotion i've
ever experienced so why don't i sit down and do something with it so i sat down at the piano and i
just set up a camera i was i was in a bathrobe and and i just woken up my hair is a mess and and uh
there's and i sat down and i started fiddling on the piano and i started singing unchained melody
but rather than how i'd always sung it which was to a romantic part and i was saying it to my mom
and it all that very raw emotion was in the song and i just filmed it one time and i got up and i
turned the camera off and i sent that and i said send that to bass just do it because for me it was
a revelation and how i didn't know if that's how at that point we hadn't spoken so i didn't know
what film he was even wanting to make but to me i thought that that is the foundation on which
i want to build everything else which is who is he at the most core level of his humanity and uh
and so yeah that was that was the tape that and then we i flew to new york and bazz and i just
we talked for three hours about elvis and love and heartbreak and everything and we just really
this i say this a lot but there's nobody that i admire more and and you know i he's bad
as i just love him to death and we had the best time getting to do this for two years
then fast forward and suddenly you're in jumpsuits and sequins and capes and everything
yeah do you miss dressing up like that i i do yeah yeah i do yeah it's something you can't you know
i suppose i could do it every day but you can do what you want yeah
yeah and that's it's there's an incredible freedom that you feel and and uh and just getting to live
within the skin of this man who was so magnetic and extraordinary it
it was the privilege of my lifetime for sure you know i could add something i i didn't tolosus but
i mean he lived his elves for two years he worked with a gifted um coach polly bennett on movement
but because of the pandemic there was even a six months where we had a dojo you know day and night
and day and night doing the moves because they had to be identical and i have a grip
and people have worked with me in the crew for 30 years and there's this guy called brett you
remember brett and he just pushes the dolly around you know yeah and he he's hiding he said over 30
years he's probably said about 10 words to me and he goes uh boss and we were shooting austin doing
suspicious minds and the thing is we shot a lot more than this in the movie and during the break
austin would relate to the audience like he was elvis it was just a show i mean i'm sure
those extras would have paid double the money not get paid but yeah it was like it was like
the most expensive ticket in the universe yeah anyway he comes up to me he says
my badger i've done the star wars i've done thin red line with uh terex malik i've done it
all i've seen it all but i have never seen anything like that how is that happening
you know that's how it was like being in the room it was actually like people had trouble
working the cameras because it was actually like we were watching elvis in vegas and it was numb
it was beyond a privilege it was kind of surreal it's a hugely inspiring film it makes you feel
like when i left it i i want to see it again and then i just thought maybe
a bit like when you went for the role in itself it makes you just think whatever
you want to do just go and do it you know it gives i think it's a very confident film dreaming you'll
do it yeah yeah if you're dreaming you'll do it i'm not all out of dreams yet not a dream you