Does Austin Butler really sing in the Elvis movie? 2022 was a great year for movies, and a great year for Austin Butler, too.
From being cast in Dune to becoming a frontrunner in the Best Actor race at the Oscars, Austin Butler has made himself a household name. It was his role in Baz Luhrmann’s new movie Elvis, though, that truly cemented his meteoric rise. In the movie based on a true story, which was also one of the best movies of 2022, the actor starred as Elvis Presley.
He portrayed the world-famous singer with the appropriate nuance and complexity, as the bombastic drama movie explored his life’s various challenges. This included plenty of scenes of singing, including some iconic performances. But were these scenes dubbed, or did Austin Butler actually sing in Elvis?
Did Austin Butler actually sing in Elvis?
Austin Butler did provide vocals for Elvis, and is a talented singer. His vocals were used entirely for sequences when the character is younger, but when older Elvis performs, his vocals were blended with that of the real Elvis to add a sense of age that Butler’s own voice wasn’t able to entirely convey.
Director Baz Luhrmann confirmed as much when he posted a video to Instagram of Butler, as young Elvis, performing the song ‘That’s All Right’. The video was accompanied by Luhrmann’s comments, in which he said “The response to Austin’s version of ‘Trouble’ has been tremendous but so many of you still ask, ‘is it Austin singing?’”
He continued “I feel I haven’t been clear enough in conveying that Austin sings all of the young Elvis in the movie, so forgive me. I thought you might find this very early camera (2019) test fascinating as Austin and the guys are just jamming while we test our lenses. Even before his two years of vocal studies I feel that Austin is channelling the vocal qualities of Elvis.”
For more on Austin Butler, check out our guide to the Dune 2 release date. Or, if you enjoyed the energy of Elvis take a look at our Babylon review.