Austin Butler relents, credits psychic ex Vanessa Hudgens with Elvis premonition
After conspicuously calling Vanessa Hudgens a "friend," Austin Butler admits his former "partner" had seen Elvis in his future
Aux News Austin Butler
Austin Butler’s road to the Oscars has been uniquely fraught—or, as he puts it, “highs have been so high and then the lows so low.” The pandemic hit at the beginning of Elvis’ production, extending his time in The King’s headspace. He permanently altered his voice (“I think that there’s certain muscular habits that must pop up,” he says mildly in a new Los Angeles Times interview) and actually needed to be hospitalized when the movie wrapped.
The press tour hasn’t been any respite: he’s been in promo mode since the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022, and now that the finish line is finally in sight, he has to field constant questions about the death of one of his biggest cheerleaders, Lisa Marie Presley. Plus questions about his girlfriend’s ex (Jacob Elordi will play Elvis in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla). Plus questions about his own ex, Vanessa Hudgens.
The latter, at least, Butler brought upon himself when he told a story during The Hollywood Reporter Actors’ Roundtable about how one Christmas a “friend” noticed him singing along to an Elvis tune and said, “You’ve got to play Elvis.” It may have gone unnoticed if not for the fact that Hudgens herself had told the story on Live With Ryan And Kelly back while they were still together.
Twitter being what it is, the denizens of the Internet immediately began to clown on Butler for referring to his partner of nine years as a “friend.” (Hudgens herself seemed to enter the discourse by commenting that she was “crying” over the whole Elvis Voice issue.) Lest the subject become yet another yoke around his neck, Butler quickly cleared up the identity of his “friend” during his nominations-morning chat with The L.A. Times.
Asked about the THR anecdote, Butler clarified that “I was with my partner at the time.” When the Times asked if that was indeed Miss Hudgens, he replied, “That’s right. We’d been together for so long and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment and so I really, I owe her a lot for believing in me.”
Finally, credit where credit is due—though how much credit Hudgens deserves for simply gazing into the future is up for debate. (She at least deserves credit for being more than just a “friend,” doesn’t she?) In any case, we can add this to the growing list of Hudgens’ supernatural abilities, alongside being able to talk to ghosts. (Seriously.) And if Butler is lucky, it’s one awkward topic of conversation he can cross off the list of talking points for the final stretch of his Elvis campaign.
15 Comments
Credit where credit’s due, I guess.
Gee Austin, could you look a little more like an affected bored prom date?
Yeah he definitely milks that disinterested blue steel thing a little much in photos.That said, I haven’t seen Elvis but I saw him on SNL and I keep seeing young Brad Pitt, including voice. Hopefully he’ll learn to loosen up on the red carpet (or learn to stop doing…whatever this is).
I bet he has similar conversations with his acting coach.
“had saw”For real?
I knowwwww
They fixed it!
“though how much credit Hudgens deserves for simply gazing into the future is up for debate”This is where I’ve been lost on the whole thing. All the story says is that she thought he looked a lot like Elvis and should play him. But that was way before the movie came about. Did he have the courage to audition because she had said that years ago? Did she call the production company and tell them to hire him? It feels like a lot more is being made of this than it warrants, or maybe I just missed part of it, though I do get the controversy around his calling her a “friend” because that was weird.
“she thought he looked a lot like Elvis”
Well, that makes one of us.
He survived Shannara, he’ll survive this.
It feels rude to intrude on your ex’s moment by making it about you.
you got it, dude!
Jesus Christ, who cares, maybe he just didn’t want to talk about his ex, or maybe they really are friends. The internet is so goddamn weird.
i’m old, but why are you getting frothy over something that doesn’t matter?