The Elvis actor has spoken about his dad, David Butler, and late mother, Lori Anne. Austin Butler has a lot of love for his family. He speaks highly of his parents, who supported his career as a child actor.
Despite their amicable divorce, they co-parented him and his sister Ashley. Lori Anne died from cancer in 2014, but Butler talks about her often.
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Austin Butler’s Parents Wrote His IMDb Entry
Austin Butler’s early acting career began with a background-acting gig on Nickelodeon’s Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide in 2004.
His parents wrote a mini-bio on his IMDb page, mentioning his uncredited role in a Hannah Montana episode as ‘Toby’ in 2006 and his first speaking role as ‘Dannifer’ in Zoey 101 2005.
Despite having a few small parts, he considered himself a serious actor from that point on and got a meatier role on Hannah Montana in 2007.
Austin Butler’s Parents Didn’t Have Much Money
In his April 2022 Vogue feature, Butler revealed that his parents, David and Lori, didn’t have much money when he was growing up.
Despite this, his mother occasionally splurged on season passes to Disneyland for him and his sister, even pulling them out of school because of their proximity. Lori ran a home daycare while David was a commercial real estate appraiser.
In an interview with Sean Evans on Hot Ones, Austin Butler shared a sentimental story about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
As a child, he used to eat them with his mother, and she would have a sandwich waiting for him at home when he walked back from school with a special permission letter. Grape jam holds a special place in his heart due to those fond memories.
Austin Butler’s Tribute To His Mother
During his SNL hosting debut in December 2022, Austin Butler paid tribute to his late mother by recalling how they used to watch the show together. He credited her for breaking him out of his shyness with their silly antics, including a Gollum impression.
Austin Butler’s Mother’s Death
After his mother’s death, the actor who plays Elvis considered quitting and questioned the worthiness of his profession. Despite starring in a young-adult television show, he felt unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
He took a break from acting and fell into a period of depression. However, his fortunes changed when he landed a role in “The Iceman Cometh” on Broadway, profoundly impacting his career.
Butler spoke with Vogue in April 2022 about his audition tape for Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis and how his late mother inspired it.
He revealed that after recording himself singing “Love Me Tender,” he had a nightmare in which his mother was alive again but dying, which felt fresh and painful.
He learned that Elvis’s mother had passed away when he was 23, the same age as Butler, and realized that Elvis probably had similar nightmares.
So, he decided to re-record his audition, singing “Unchained Melody” and pouring his emotions into the song.
Luhrmann was moved by the audition tape and said Butler carried something of Elvis with him from the moment they met.
Butler shared that he has a tattoo of the number 27 on his wrist in memory of his late mother. She considered it her “God number,” and believed seeing it meant God was watching over her.
Meet Austin Butler’s Elvis Movement Coach
Polly Bennett is the movement coach behind the transformations of Austin Butler, Rami Malek, and Naomi Ackie into music legends Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, and Whitney Houston. She explains the importance of her role in portraying real-life figures and how it is a massive task to live up to their iconic performances.
Bennett spent a year-and-a-half working with Butler to transform him into Elvis for the Baz Luhrmann production, with several hours of practice every day. They worked on the swing and tap dancing and recited Presley’s lyrics as poetry.
