Real or Fake?Is Austin Butler’s ‘Elvis’ Accent *Actually* the Real Deal? Here’s Everything He’s Said: Quotes

Social Anxiety Plays a Factor

Austin admitted that he tends to channel the king of rock n’ roll whenever he deals with his social anxiety, in nerve-racking situations such as awards shows and interviews.

“Something like being onstage was a terrifying thing to me as Austin,” he said. “But when I was able to live within Elvis, it gave me a way to channel that fear. And I also get social anxiety — being in large groups is not my most comfortable place. So having a way of tapping into his energy helps, and that might be the reason it gets brought up again and again. I’m usually in an environment where I’m having to tap into him. It’s almost like tools on a tool belt — I’ve got bits of Elvis that unconsciously make me feel comfortable. He’s always with me.”

Accent No More?

According to Austin’s Dune costar Dave Bautista, the Elvis actor does not sound like the king of rock and roll in the upcoming sequel, Dune.

“I don’t know who this guy was, but it’s not Austin Butler,” Dave told USA Today in February 2023. “It’s not Elvis. His voice is different, his look is different. Everything about his demeanor is terrifying.”

R.I.P. Austin’s Elvis accent, you will be missed.

‘Pieces of My DNA’

“I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I haven’t noticed ’cause I hear it a lot,” Austin shared at the 2023 Golden Globes. “I think, 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.”

He added, “I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”

SNL Monologue

Austin poked fun at voice-change rumors in his Saturday Night Live monologue, saying, “There’s people out there who say that ever since I played Elvis, my voice has changed — that it got deeper, more Elvis-y. But that’s not true. I’ve always sounded like this, and I can prove it. Here’s a clip from an interview I did 10 years ago.” Then, Austin played a clip of an old interview with the sound deliberately pitched high.

‘Habitual’

The Golden Globe winner acknowledged that sometimes he gets stuck doing the Elvis voice by accident in a Yahoo! Australia interview from June 2023. “Certain situations trigger it, I think,” he said.

“That was the voice I spoke in for two years. It was so habitual,” Austin explained. “You get done and you kinda don’t remember what your natural voice is.”

‘Fiber’ Of His ‘Being’

He addressed his tendency to slip into Elvis’s accent in a June 2023 interview with Entertainment Tonight, saying it’s something he can’t control. “At this point, I keep asking people, ‘Is this my voice?’ because this feels like my real … It’s one of those things where certain things trigger it,” he said. “When you live with something for two years and you do nothing else, I think that you can’t help it. It becomes a fiber of your being.”

Hiring a Dialect Coach

On January 24, 2024 during an interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Austin revealed some of the challenges he faced after playing Elvis. “I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis.”

He further admitted, “I was just trying to remember who I was. I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about for three years was Elvis.”