Being a Disney Channel star helped Austin Butler grow into the actor he is today.
In an interview with Vogue, the “Elvis” star opened up about his history on Disney shows like “iCarly” and “Zoey 101”.
“I was sort of embarrassed about some of the things that I had to do,” he admitted. “But I had to cut my teeth somewhere, so I decided to treat each one of these jobs as a way to grow.”
After following those up with roles in CW dramas like “Life Unexpected”, “Switched at Birth” and “The Carrie Diaries”, Butler said that he considered quitting acting to become a director.
But then the actor was cast in Jim Jarmusch’s “Dead Don’t Die”, and soon followed it up by playing a Manson family member in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”.
“It felt like the stars were aligning,” he recalled. “I just said, ‘I’m going to dedicate everything I have to this.’”
READ MORE: Florence Pugh, Austin Butler In Talks To Join ‘Dune: Part Two’
Next up, Butler will Elvis Presley in Bay Luhrmann’s epic biopic about the iconic rock ‘n’ roll singer.
“What I heard vocally, and more importantly, what I saw emotionally, was something that simply couldn’t be ignored,” the director told Vogue. “From the moment I met Austin, he was carrying something of Elvis with him. He had a hint of the swagger, a touch of the sound.”
Butler said that he went the extra mile to learn about Presley, in order to embody him onscreen.
“I had so many hours of being put into the deep end of fear,” Butler said. “I learned that Elvis was very shy as a kid, and he would ask people to turn around when he played the guitar and turn off the lights in the room, and I thought, That’s how I feel now. But he overcame that. So how can I?”
