Austin Butler is one of the frontrunners at the Oscars this year, having secured a spot in the Oscars nominations for his portrayal of a music icon in drama movie Elvis. It’s a performance full of rhythm, style and charisma – though we’re baffled about the fact he’s still using the accent.
Despite a strong campaign for Brendan Fraser to win Best Actor for his comeback role in The Whale, most Oscars predictions have it as a 50/50 battle between he and Butler.
Butler was heavily committed to his embrace of Elvis Presley for the role and had some help from someone very well-versed in movies based on a true story.
The actor was helped in building his performance by the movement coach Polly Bennett, who previously worked with Rami Malek on his Oscar-winning performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Bennett told Metro she is thrilled to see stars like Malek and Butler recognise her contribution when they win awards. Malek presented her with a “mini Oscar” after his win. “If we didn’t have them shouting about it then you probably wouldn’t ever know that we existed,” said Bennett.
She really enjoyed the process of getting inside the mind of another music legend. “The quest was every time it became ‘oh my god, it’s Elvis’ to go: ‘Oh no, it’s a person living at this time doing this thing around these people, seeing these things’. It was to take it back to the human at the core of it.”
We’ll soon know whether Bennett has managed to help another actor to Oscars glory, and it will be exciting to see which new movies she takes on in the future.
For more on the Oscars, check out our guides on how to watch Elvis, how to watch The Banshees of Inisherin, how to watch The Fabelmans, and how to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once.