-Welcome back. -Love you, Austin!
[ Laughter ] -It is great to see you again.
Congrats on every single thing that's happening.
I gotta talk about this.
You got nominated for a SAG, BAFTA, and an Oscar.
Come on. [ Cheers and applause ]
You won the Golden Globe.
I called it before it came out, I go, "Dude, it was
the best performance of the year for me, that I've seen."
You're amazing in this. -Thank you so much.
-How does it all feel to get all this stuff and...?
-I mean, it feels -- it feels like a dream.
It really -- I've been doing this for a long time.
And so, a night like that, it was so special.
-The Golden Globes? -The Golden Globes.
-Yeah. -You know, to get to share that
with my sister and with Priscilla and Lisa Marie.
It was just so special, you know.
-I saw that you brought your sister to the thing.
That's very cool. Did she have a good time?
-She was the life of the party. -Was she?
-Yeah. She would just come up to me
and she'd say, like, "That guy looks just like James Marsden."
And she was talking to him for 20 minutes.
I said, "That is James Marsden, Ashley."
[ Laughter ] -She loves James Marsden.
-She loves James Marsden. -That's fantastic.
-She's got a husband, but he was a gentleman to her.
He was fantastic. -It's James Marsden.
-It's James Marsden. -But when you win and you get up
and you start talking, do you know what you're gonna say?
Do you have a speech? -Well, what they didn't tell me
is that you get up there in front of everybody
you've ever admired, on live television,
and you get up on stage, and there's a screen in the back
that says "30 seconds," and it's counting down.
And then, after 30 seconds, it starts flashing in red,
"Wrap it up, wrap it up."
And so, you're up there, completely blacked out,
trying to just string together some comprehensible sentences.
And I walked off stage just thinking,
"I hope that I said something."
-No, you were great. You were great.
But, yeah, all you're seeing is, "Wrap it up, wrap it up."
"Uh...wrap it up?" -Yeah, it was so special.
-You thanked Denzel Washington. -Yeah.
-What was the connection with Denzel and you?
-Well, the moment that changed my whole career,
'cause I've been doing this since I was 12,
but it was doing a play with Denzel,
"The Iceman Cometh," here in New York.
-Yeah. -And it just --
it shifted my whole career in many ways.
And he was so kind to me.
And being in that rehearsal room with him, I mean, he's --
He will go down in history as one of the greatest actors
to ever live. -Yeah.
-And he was so generous to me.
-Did you get nervous meeting him for the first time?
-Yeah, yeah.
I mean, it's like meeting royalty.
And it's like meeting, you know,
your hero from "Training Day" at the same time.
[ Laughter ] So, it's really intense.
-It's everything, yeah. -And so, I really --
I was so scared. So, I memorized the entire --
It's a four-hour play. I memorized the entire thing
before the first table read, so that way,
I could sit there with him. I sat right next to him,
and I could sit there and not look at the script
the whole time. I just came out there, just --
I knew I had to just give it everything I had.
So, that -- yeah, it changed my life.
But he was so kind. -And to show him that
you meant business in your work. -Yeah, and then he --
I mean, I still haven't talked to him since,
but he called Baz when I was screentesting
for the role and kind of vouched for me.
So I feel like I owe him a lot.
-Yeah, I heard that you were actually practicing
before you even auditioned for the role of Elvis.
-Well, I mean, I heard Baz was making the movie,
and I didn't even have an audition.
But the day that I heard he was making it, I --
Some delusional thought came over my mind
that I just need to give this everything that I have.
And so, I called a dialect coach and a singing coach
and a movement coach, and I just started working
like I had the job.
-Before you even got to audition?
-Before I even met Baz. And then a couple months later,
then we met, and I was already down that road.
So that's how I ended up -- -When you see the movie,
you just can't even believe it.
It's you singing. It's you moving.
It's you -- You get that feeling,
that excitement, that energy. You're like, "Oh, that's what
it must've been like when Elvis first --
You know, when it happened. And then you took it
to the next level, and I'm so happy you're getting
nominated for all this stuff.
Obviously, everyone's shocked and saddened
by Lisa Marie Presley passing away so suddenly.
But you got to hang with her.
She got to see your work.
You got to actually -- You were in the room with her.
-Yeah. -That must have been --
What was that like in the early stages of the movie
and filming and getting to know her?
-I first met Lisa when we screened the film at Graceland.
-Yeah. -And I've never had
an experience where I met somebody
and felt an immediate depth of relationship to them.
And she just -- And she's also --
She was a person who didn't really have anything to prove
and wouldn't open up to everybody,
and she just opened up to me, and we got so close so fast.
So, yeah, it's just devastating. And it's --
It's weird in moments like this because it's so bittersweet.
You just -- I mean, so much great stuff is happening,
but it's really --
I'm just, you know, devastated for her family.
-Sure. -And for her to not be here
celebrating with us, you know?
-I'm happy that she got to see you.
-Yeah. And, I mean, just to get
to be with her at the Golden Globes, like,
I'll never forget that for the rest of my life.
-To give you the support and to give you the thumbs-up.
Was it Lisa Marie or was it Priscilla
that showed you Elvis' slippers?
-It was Lisa Marie.
-Yeah, I remember you told me that.
And I was like -- I got chills. -I get goose bumps.
I mean, that was after we screened the film.
And the bedroom -- you know, his bedroom is a place
that most people never get to see.
And she said, you know, "I want to show you something."
And she took me up there. And it was --
You know, moments like that, we just sat in his bedroom,
and up there, he's not Elvis.
He was just dad, you know? -Yeah.
-And so, to hear those stories,
I truly will treasure that forever.
-Did you get to keep anything from the set?
-Yeah, yeah. I kept a number of things.
But I kept, you know, the black leather from '68.
-No. -I kept that.
-They let you do that? -Yeah.
I mean, it's in a box right now, but I need to, like,
put it on a mannequin or something.
[ Laughter ]
-You have it. Yeah, as soon as you walk into your house.
-Eventually I'll do something. -Well, that's so cool.
-So, I have that. And then when I wrapped,
Baz gave me the back of the "Unchained Melody" jumpsuit.
You know the medallion on the back of that?
So, I have that framed at home. -Oh, my gosh.
You were saying, too, I read in an interview,
that you talked to Rami Malek before you did this.
And you go, "You got any advice on how to play such an icon?"
And he gave you some great advice.
-Yeah. So, we had the same movement coach, Polly Bennett,
who he worked with on "Bohemian Rhapsody."
-Oh, my gosh. -She's just the best.
And so she said, you know, "Nobody knows what
you're going through like Rami does,
so I'll connect you to him." And so she connected us.
And I was really nervous,
especially for the live performances
because I was never a singer, I was never a dancer.
I'm always a wallflower at a party.
I'm very shy.
So, I was naturally perfect to play Elvis.
[ Laughter ] -Exactly, oh, my God.
You have all those things going for you.
-I had all that going for me. -"He's perfect!
Except he doesn't do that." -Yeah.
So, but I talked to Rami, and he said,
"You know, those days seem like the most daunting,
but when you get out there in front of the audience
and you feel a genuine rapport
and you see genuine emotion on these people's faces,
something ends up happening that you can never expect."
And those days ended up becoming my favorite days on set
and probably that I'll ever have 'cause it's the closest thing
to what Elvis himself experienced, you know?
-Yeah. Do you like that when you
go into a role, to challenge yourself?
I mean, you do "Iceman Cometh" with Denzel,
you're gonna play Elvis Presley and you don't sing or dance.
-Yeah. I think that's what it's all kind of about is, like,
exploring bits of yourself that you may not in real life.
You know? -Yeah.
-And also using fear as a compass.
You know, I often say that.
Because then it expands your comfort zone.
And I was such a repressed kid.
Like, I wouldn't order food for myself at a restaurant.
I wouldn't -- I was so shy. So, it's all this kind of
personal thing of getting to explore these bits of yourself
that you never do otherwise.
-You hit a home run with this, buddy.
"Elvis" is nominated for eight Academy Awards,
including Best Picture.
You're nominated for Best Actor. Congratulations, buddy.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Awesome.
I want to show everyone a clip.
Here is Austin Butler in "Elvis."
Take a look at this.
-♪ I'm evil, evil, evil as can be ♪
♪ So don't mess around, don't mess around with me ♪
♪♪
♪ I'm evil ♪
♪ And I'm evil ♪
♪ Evil ♪ [ Camera shutter clicks ]
♪ Evil ♪
-Now would be a good time to -- to get back into the car.
-♪ I'm evil ♪
♪ Evil ♪ ♪ Evil ♪
[ Audio distorting ]
[ Crowd cheering ]
[ Ominous music plays ]
♪ I'm evil ♪
-Get that boy off that stage!
♪♪
-That's Austin Butler right there.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Austin Butler, "Elvis," is in theaters
and streaming now on HBO Max.
More "Tonight Show" after the break.
Stick around, everybody. [ Cheers and applause ]