Austin Butler Shows Off His Elvis Impressions and Teaches Jimmy an Iconic Dance Move (Extended)

Man, oh, man, I'm so happy to meet you, and thank you so much for coming on the show. You hit a home run with this movie, buddy. I can't even tell you what a great job you did. We saw it. We screened it the other night. You're fantastic in this movie. Thank you. Congratulations, and it was so good. I want to get down to all the details and ask you all the questions. Here's some of the reviews, by the way, just so you know, if you want to plug your ears. But one says that when Austin Butler shakes his hips in Elvis's first gig as a full-blown rock-and-roller, it's like watching two stars being born. That was time-out. I like that one. Vanity Fair says it may well be a star-making turn for Austin Butler, and I agree with that. And then this one's my favorite. Entertainment Weekly says, Austin Butler stares down the lens and melts it. That's really good. That? I've never heard that. Melting it. I did feel that when I was watching the thing. Baz Luhrmann did such an amazing job directing. Yeah, he did. I'm so proud of everything he's done. Yeah. It was incredible. Did you feel when you were auditioning, when you knew that there was an audition for Elvis, and you're like, I'm close to it, did you get nervous? Did you always know Elvis? Yeah, you did. Yeah, it's terrifying. I mean, but it's that thing where it's, I mean, it's the biggest responsibility I've ever felt. You feel such a responsibility to him, to his family, to all the people around the world who love him so much, and so it's terrifying. But it's also the thing where, as an actor, like the actors that I always looked up to when I was a kid, my dad always had Turner Classic movies in the house, and so Raging Bull and East of Eden and Waterfront and all those, so it was always like, what do they do? And so it's always been about the challenge, so I just, I leant into that as much as I could. But then once you got cast as Elvis, do you go like, okay, now I got the gig, now it's really hard. I really got to get to work. Yeah, you feel like you're about to climb Mount Everest. Yeah, it really is, and you did it perfectly. I can't even tell you, you didn't do too much, it wasn't too little, wait till you see this performance. I'm telling you, buddy, it was a knockout. I mean, just even the accents that Elvis had, the way he talked in the 50s, the way he talked in the 60s and the 70s, like three different Elvises, and you sang differently. And you actually sang in this movie. Yeah. Yeah, well, I'm saying that because, sorry. But I mean, we've had some actors on the show, they play parts in movies and they don't sing and they lip sync, but you can play guitar and you sang and you dance and move just like, it was, but I mean, how did you do the accents? How'd you remember what you were doing? Well, I mean, for one thing, you listen to Elvis speak and there's these amazing archives out there of every interview he ever gave. And that was the first thing that hit me was, it's not just one voice of Elvis. His voice changed so much over the years. And so it's that thing of- Could you give us an example or I'm sorry to put you on the spot. I told myself I wasn't gonna do this. All right, all right, okay, all right. So, I mean, I haven't done this at all. And it's been a long time, so take it easy on the internet. But I, all right, so like an example is when he was 19 and he goes on the Louisiana Hay Ride, it's 1954. And his voice, you know, he's nervous. His voice at that time, you speak a lot faster when you're nervous and also he was young. And so his voice at that point was like, well, I'd like to say how happy you are to be down here. It's a real honor for us to get a chance to appear on Louisiana Hay Ride. It's like that. And then like a couple years later, he's 21, it's 1956. And he, honestly, this one I thought of earlier because it's how I feel right now. It's that thing where you're not sleeping at night, you're just buzzing. I can't believe, just, I gotta take a second. I'm on Jimmy Falun talking about playing Elvis Presley. You're my hero, man, I'm a big fan of you. I just buzzed my mind, I really, I just, yeah. So at this point, so he's 21 and at that point, he's more like, he says, cause he's asked, what are you thinking about at night? And he says, well, everything's happening to me so fast in the last year and a half that I'm all mixed up, you know what I mean? I can't keep up with everything that's happening. Yeah, it's unbelievable. And then for like a juxtaposition, like we can fast forward to 72. Like there's this great interview in 72 and one of the first things he says is, well, cause at this point, his voice goes more forward into his face, you know? And so then he's like, well, you know, well, he just came out of here from Memphis and that sort of thing, you know? Yeah, it's just coming out of the front of your face. It comes out of the front of your face. It's like three different characters. It's such a great love letter to Elvis and any Elvis fan to ultimate respect. And I was reading some article about this and you were saying what kind of hit home to you is that his love for his mother. Yeah, yeah. And now he lost his mom. Yeah, that was the first thing. Cause when I first started approaching it, it's that thing of Elvis is always 40 feet tall. He's like, you can only look up to him. And it's hard to, in the beginning, to feel anything but small compared to him. And all those questions, you know, I'm a shy person. I feel very, you know, those moments of am I enough and imposter syndrome and all those things. And so it was a process in the beginning of just trying to find his humanity. And I tried many things, but I watched this documentary and I learned that his mom passed away when he was 23. And that's how old I was when I lost my mom. And that hit me like a freight train cause it's the most human thing. Like that grief that you feel. And I know you've experienced it, you know, that feeling. And that's the thing where it just humanizes somebody and you suddenly don't feel alone in that. And so that became the first key into finding his humanity. Yeah, you played it, you just played it perfect. And you got to, obviously had to go to Graceland, I'm assuming, and meet Priscilla. Yeah, that was so surreal. The first time I went, it was about a month after I was cast. And Baz and I took this road trip from Nashville to Memphis and I got to record. The first recording studio I ever was in was RCA, where Elvis recorded over 250 something songs, you know. It was insane. And so then we drove to Memphis. I'm freaking out. I mean, this is unbelievable. Also, I was just in Graceland and Angie, who runs the spot, she said, tell Jimmy, cause I know he's a big fan, tell him I was showing him everything. So I was taking you in the archives, everything. Really? Yeah. Cause I'm not paying, cause I was waiting. I want to wait for the exact right moment to go to Graceland and tell a big fan. Oh, you'll get all the hookups. Really? Yeah, for sure. Someone sent over this photo of you in the jungle room playing, is it Elvis' guitar? Yeah. I still am waiting for somebody to wake me up. I mean, wait, so how did you end up? This is where, like, they had wanted me, you know, for social media or something. They were like, well, we'll get you playing a guitar. They were going to just have me play some random guitar at one point. I kept putting it off, cause I'm not a big social media person as well. And then when we got to Memphis, they were like, we're making you do it. And so they got some other guitar and Angie heard that I was going to be playing a song. And she said, what guitar are you playing? I said, oh, it's a 1937 I performed. And she goes, well, I got a 56 Gibson. And I realized what she's saying. And this is, I actually didn't know this, but that guitar is the guitar he played in Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole. It's also the guitar Scotty Moore had it redone. So it's the same guitar he plays, and that's the way it is. Yeah, it was. It's the same guitar he plays in Vegas. I mean. And the last person to play it in the archives was Paul McCartney. Last person to play it was Paul McCartney. Like, yeah, basically. What is going on? How great is that? And what was Priscilla like when you went? Man, she's just the loveliest person. And when I first met her, she said, she said, she was very few words, but there was more looking into her eyes. And you realize this is the woman that Elvis fell in love with all those years ago. And she still loves him to this day. And she's the mother of his only child. And that was so surreal. And then, but she, she said a couple of things. She said, you have big shoes to fill. I said, I know, just you feel the pressure. And then, and then she said, and she gave me this big hug and she said, you have a lot of support. And then that was huge. And then she said, have you been to Grayson yet? Said, I'm about to go in for the first time. And she said, I truly believe that's where his spirit is. And then I went over there for the first time and it was, I spent the whole day in there by myself. And now getting to, you know, spend time with her and be in the jungle room and like Lisa Marie. And I just, it made me feel like I was a part of the family. It was so amazing. Are you a dancer? I'm sorry to ask this because I don't, I don't know. I was like, I don't know if I've seen you. I don't know if you- I wasn't a singer or a dancer. No, you definitely dance in this. I mean, I mean, you're just like, you're like a shy person. You wouldn't, I got a party. Would you- I was always a wallflower, you know. Really? Yeah. But that was the thing is, is you realize that Elvis wasn't, he wasn't, he didn't do choreography in the way that Michael did or something like that. He was, it was all the music moving him. And obviously there are signature things that he did that, you know, you have to be specific about, but it was all about the way that the music moved him. Could you, could you show me? Oh God. Again. All right, all right. Get out of here. I haven't done it. It's been a long time. All right. So this is, so from, from the fifties, you had this one that was really fun. I just called it the sidewinder. You can kind of, you can go from walking into a side. So you start here? Yeah, so basically what you're doing is like, you know when you move like this? Okay. But you're going to put all your weight on your right foot and then your left foot's just going to sort of tap. So you go to the side first and then from there, you just tap to the side. But you use this almost like a windmill. A windmill, okay. Ready? And this, this hand can almost be like you're holding a cane or something. Okay. So you kind of, from the side. That's right. He's the best. Come on, bud. I want to show everyone a clip. Here's Austin Butler in Elvis. Take a look at this. Welcome to the party at the Town of Jail. Jail! Oh my goodness.