Austin Butler's new miniseries "Masters of the Air" was the first major project he worked on after wrapping his Oscar-nominated performance playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis." Apparently, Butler only had one week between shoots and found dropping his Elvis accent to be a bit of a challenge.
In a Jan. 24 appearance on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert," Butler explained that a dialect coach was necessary to help him transition between the two projects to "not sound like Elvis." After spending three full years fully invested in playing the King, it was a quick transition to put himself in the shoes of bomber pilot Gale "Buck" Cleven in the AppleTV+ series.
"I was just trying to remember who I was," he explained. "I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years. And then I had that week off, and then I flew to London, and at that time it was COVID, so I was quarantined for 10 days. I thought, 'All right, just pour all this energy into learning about World War II now.'"
"Masters of the Air" is the latest WWII project from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, who previously worked together on "Saving Private Ryan," "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific." The latest installment is adapted from Donald L. Miller's book of the same name, centered on the bomber unit known as the "Bloody Hundredth," which targeted the Nazis during WWII.
Despite the quick turnaround time, Butler knew this wasn't an opportunity he could pass up.
"It was one of those no-brainer decisions. You've got Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman, and I'm such a huge fan of 'Band of Brothers,' 'The Pacific' and 'Saving Private Ryan,'" Butler told The Hollywood Reporter. "I knew that this opportunity doesn't come up every day, so I leapt in with everything that I could."
"Masters of the Air" premieres on AppleTV+ on Jan. 26, with subsequent episodes dropping weekly.
