In a recent interview with The Times, Austin Butler revealed he was so committed to his titular role in the 2022 biopic Elvis that he ended up in the hospital — and a deeply concerned Tom Hanks offered him another role right away to help with his mental health.
According to Butler, Hanks told him: "You have immersed yourself so deeply in Elvis that, for your mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else. If you just jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash... and, you know, I've got this thing I'm producing.'"
While we would expect some time off, maybe a few weeks on a beach somewhere would be the antidote to method actor blues, Tom Hanks would know better than us. Butler immediately dove into the role offered by Hanks and will play Major Gale Cleven, an airman in the Hanks-produced WWII epic Masters of the Air, a companion piece to Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Butler said Elvis forced him "to go to the very edge of what is possible, and not every experience will be like that. I don't think I'll ever have an experience like that again, but if I have to really dig, it makes me feel alive."
The 31-year-old actor received an Academy Award nomination for his turn as "The King of Rock and Roll." He prepared for the role over a three-year period, and it involved far more than merely adopting Elvis' distinctive southern drawl. He consumed liquefied Häagen-Dazs ice cream to gain weight for his portrayal of Elvis' later years. And his commitment led to him contracting a virus that put him in the hospital just a day after filming wrapped. The virus mimicked symptoms of appendicitis, confining Butler to bed rest for a week.
"The next day [after filming wrapped], I woke up at four in the morning with excruciating pain, and I was rushed to the hospital," Butler told GQ magazine. "My body just started shutting down the day after I finished 'Elvis.'"
Elvis is now available to stream on Max.
