Making an Elvis Presley biopic presents a selected problem: how do you discover somebody who can channel the star high quality, the charisma, the voice, and the appearing means of the legendary star of stage and display? It is a activity that has fallen to rising star Austin Butler, who beforehand appeared in Tarantino’s As soon as Upon A Time In Hollywood. He’s taking up the legendary rock’n’roll icon in Baz Luhrmann’s simply-titled Elvis – charting the lifetime of the person who left the world all shook up by his swiveling hips and radio-rockin’ tunes.

Talking to Empire, Butler says that he discovered a means into Elvis by means of their shared expertise of loss. “His mother handed away when he was 23 and my mother handed away after I was 23,” he explains. “He was very near his mother, and my mother was my greatest pal. I simply thought it was one of the human issues I might connect with, that he knew what that grief felt like. It linked me to him on a deep stage.”

It was by means of this particular connection that Butler recorded the audition that helped spur him on to bag the half. Initially, he’d filmed a model of ‘Love Me Tender’ in his bid for the function – however he quickly felt it wasn’t hitting the spot. “I watched it again and I simply thought, ‘This seems like an impersonation. I can’t ship this,’” he recollects. As a substitute, he turned to a different well-known Elvis track, and tapped into his feelings round his mom’s passing. “Elvis would have poured the emotion into the music,” he causes. “‘Unchained Melody’ was all the time a love track in direction of a romantic associate however I believed, ‘What if I sing this to my mother proper now?’ I arrange the digicam nonetheless in my bathrobe.” 4 months later, the half was his – and he’ll be hitting our screens this June.

Learn Empire’s full story on Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis within the Summer season Preview situation – on sale Thursday 12 Might, and obtainable to pre-order on-line right here. Elvis involves UK cinemas from 24 June.