Austin Butler has this fanbase all shaken up.
The Golden Globe winner recently reflected on his road to playing Elvis Presley in the biopic Elvis, explaining that it was a “friend” who convinced him he was perfect for the role. However, many fans have worked, worked, worked it out that Austin was potentially referring to his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens—and with good reason.
“The month before I heard that Baz [Luhrmann] was making the movie, I was going to look at Christmas lights with a friend,” he recalled during The Hollywood Reporter‘s Actors Roundtable published Jan. 10. “And there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio and I was singing along and my friend looked over at me and went, ‘You’ve got to play Elvis.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s such a long shot.'”
But he notes his unnamed friend was persistent, giving him the same note a little while later.
“A couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano,” he continued. “I never really sang for any of my friends or anything. That same friend was there and I was playing the piano. She said, ‘I’m serious. You gotta figure out how you can get the rights to a script.’ Then my agent called and said, ‘So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film.'”