Austin Butler Is Ready for the A-List

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | June 27, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | June 27, 2024 |

It’s easy to love Austin Butler. The one-time Disney Channel supporting actor landed one of the most coveted roles of the decade in Elvis and became a big effing deal with a performance that so thoroughly embodied the essence of the king of rock and roll that he recalibrated his vocal chords to make it happen. Since then, Butler has been on a thrillingly upward trajectory, both as an actor and a celebrity. He was a scene stealer in one of 2024’s biggest films, and now he’s leading Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders to great acclaim. He’s talented, handsome, charming, and committed to his job without being so self-serious that he becomes tedious to watch. What’s not to love?

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But it’s also easy to mock Austin Butler. We’re so used to hearing about actors transforming themselves to play a familiar historical figure that the process is almost boring now, yet Butler’s work in Elvis felt like a shot in the arm for the well-worn and highly predictable biopic genre. He did the impossible and became one of the most famous people of the 20th century, imbuing an oft-parodied figure of idolatry and replication with an empathy that made him feel like so much more than the swaggering caricature that had dominated pop culture since his death. It wasn’t just the technical aspects of Butler’s work that landed so forcefully, although it was clear that he’d done his homework. It was, to invoke an overused concept, the vibe. You 100% believed that women and teenage girls lost their damn minds within seconds of seeing this guy shake his hips.

The voice felt like the elephant in the room, not only because it demonstrated a kind of disconnect from the world of us mere mortals and our ‘real jobs’ but because it broke the sacred rule of so-called method acting in the modern day. Hollywood has long fetishized this bastardized version of the process where self-flagellation and achingly detailed replication matter more than spirit or emotion. Yet they prefer to celebrate it when the lines between work and play are defined. It’s one thing to put on weight to play someone, but they hate to see you out of shape and, gasp, looking less than perfect when you promote the project. It’s supposed to be a sign of your expertise, that you can so wholly change your life for the craft and then go back to being a hunky leading man with a face that can sell cologne and watches. So, when Butler’s voice remained undeniably Elvis-esque, it broke the pact. Dude, who do you think you are, talking like Presley after you took off the jumpsuit?

Butler is keenly aware of the change and has been asked about it numerous times. The intense labour of voice training left its mark, as these processes often do. Usually, it’s not so noticeable (check out the number of actors who were left with major health issues after gaining and losing weight in a dangerously short period of time, such as Matt Damon and George Clooney.) Personally, I think the issue is way overblown. People’s voices change. Many celebrities do it deliberately to fit a certain image. Butler was a young and eager actor who spent a huge period of his life training for the role of a lifetime, largely in isolation thanks to COVID, and it paid off. Let him drawl a little now and then.

Besides, it’s that malleability and gung-ho giddiness that makes him so compelling. He committed to another vocal shift with Dune: Part Two, where he played Feyd-Rautha, the sociopathic nephew of Baron Harkonnen. Totally hairless, with black teeth and an alabaster-smooth body, Butler’s Feyd radiates a repulsive aura that can only be described as ‘top space pervert.’ He’s lascivious, a murderous bully who slashes throats with the ease of someone opening a door. Throughout it, Butler is doing the most spot-on impression of Stellan Skarsgård, who plays the Baron. It’s a gut-rumbling rasp that contrasts with the matinee idol youthfulness of Timothee Chalamet’s Paul Atreides. Butler also proudly leaned into the queer subtext of the novel, improvising a kiss with the Baron that is close enough to tonguing to make you wonder who is truly on top in terms of their power dynamic. It’s a performance that is somehow both vanity-free and preening to the point of madness. I loved it.

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Butler has been pretty careful in choosing his post-Elvis career path. He’s got the time and luxury that can only come with being a hot dude with an Oscar nomination to his name, but he’s also savvy enough to hold out for some great directors. His list of upcoming projects includes films with Darren Aronofsky and Ari Aster, neither of whom are necessarily comfortable picks (although they’re certainly more mainstream than they used to be), and he’s rumoured to be Michael Mann’s first choice for the Val Kilmer role in the Heat prequel. It seems like a strong slate, a balance between brooding and barmy. I’m a sucker for a hot guy who’s also a total freak.

I wonder how much the voice will define his career, or at least our perceptions of it. For many, including some of my friends, it’s the roadblock they just can’t overcome to fully embrace Butler as an actor. To them, it’s a sillier and lower-stakes version of Jared Leto’s Joker antics, a sign that he took stuff too seriously to function. I worry that such criticisms could make Butler neurotic, but for now, he has a good balance of self-awareness and natural movie-star charm. It’s no wonder red-carpet interviewers go weak at the knees when he turns his attention to them. Besides, at a time when the film industry is desperate for more old-school leading stars who can attract audiences to the cinema, Butler’s appeal far exceeds his vocal evolution. He’s a retro star with the modernity of self-awareness. What more could we ask for? Well, personally, I’m all in on more weird voices.