Since Austin Butler completed work on the biopic Elvis, many people have picked up one major change he seems to have undergone.
Namely, his voice, which fans have been pointing out now sounds a lot more like Elvis Presley than they were used to hearing before he started filming.
During an appearance on Friday’s edition of Graham Norton’s BBC talk show, the host couldn’t help asking Austin about the changes to his voice, with the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actor insisting he’s slowly starting to “get rid of the accent”.
“I have probably damaged my vocal cords with all that singing,” he claimed. “One song took 40 takes!”
After his acceptance speech at the Golden Globes last month, Austin admitted he wasn’t convinced he sounded all that different.
“I don’t think I sound like him still, but I guess I must ’cause I hear it a lot,” he stated.
“I had three years where that was my only focus in life, so I’m sure that there’s just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way.”
Meanwhile, the voice coach Austin worked with to help transform into Elvis has also spoken out.
“What you saw in that Golden Globes speech, that’s him. It’s genuine, it’s not put on,” she said.
“I feel sorry people are saying that, you know,” the voice coach added, noting that Austin had continued to take Elvis’ voice “on board” into his real life and it could “be there forever”.
She also pointed out: “Because of Covid shutdowns, he was working on it all the time and it’s difficult to switch off something you’ve spent so much focus [and] time on.”
Elsewhere during his Graham Norton interview, Austin was asked how it felt to have been nominated for an Oscar at the upcoming awards show.
“It has been a whirlwind and it’s amazing,” he said. “When you are making a film you never really know how it will be received.
“With this one there were so many ways it could go wrong so to be received in the way it has, it means the world to me.”
Of working with Tom Hanks on Elvis, he recalled: “I had no idea what it was going to be like meeting someone you have admired for so long. You hope they’ll be warm to you, but you never really know.
“He is such a master of his craft, and I was intimidated, but the first time I met him he gave me the biggest bear hug and joked about how nervous he was.
“When I said I was terrified, he said ‘And nobody knows what Colonel Parker sounds like, but everyone knows what Elvis sounds like!’.”
The Graham Norton Show airs on Friday night at 10.40pm on BBC One.