Playing Elvis, The King, is no small task, as Austin Butler knows all too well.
The actor has often talked about the pressure that was on him to get his performance right in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, and the lengths he went to do so.
Austin, 31, said he’d wake up in the night in ‘terror’ and barely see his family as he worked on the movie. He recently told Jimmy Kimmel: ‘I had these compilations of his voice I would listen to every day, his laugh, different songs.’
And evidently, it paid off, with Austin taking home a Golden Globe for his trouble. However, during the Californian’s acceptance speech, fans couldn’t help but notice his voice and accent are both still pretty… Elvisified.
As Esteban Touma, a member of the didactics team for language learning software and e-learning platform Babbel, tells me: ‘[Austin’s] pronunciation of vowel sounds was clearly reminiscent of Elvis.
‘While saying “I cannot believe I’m here right now”, his pronunciation of “I’m” as “Ah-m” and the elongated, loose vowel sound in “now” seemed to closely resemble Elvis’ southern drawl.’
Speaking to press after the awards ceremony, the actor was asked about the accent and mannerisms sticking with him by Variety. He likened these changes to those that happen to people who move to different countries – people like me, in fact.
‘I don’t think I sound like him still,’ Austin insisted to the room full of reporters, ‘but I guess I must because I hear it a lot.
‘I liken it to when people live in another country for a long time – I had three years where [Elvis] was my only focus in life. So I’m sure there are pieces of my DNA that will always be linked.’
I know from experience that accents can be strange beasts. I spent the first third of my life in Texas, the middle third in Yorkshire and the final, ongoing third in London, so mine is now a hopeless hodgepodge of all three.
To my low-key embarrassment, the way I talk can change depending on where I am, who I’m speaking to, and even what I’m watching on TV. Of course, it’s not the biggest cross to bear, but I worry it makes me sound fake.
Reassuringly, Esteban says: ‘Butler’s transformation in his accent and speaking voice may be an extreme example, but it is not out of the ordinary for a person’s voice to evolve over time.’
In general, lots of accent changes are thought to be down to the ‘chameleon effect.’
‘This refers to the small adjustments people make to their accents in order to fit in with those around them by mirroring their style of speech,’ says Esteban.
‘This can be part of the reason that an accent can change when moving to a new city or country. Accents can even change between conversations without conscious effort, as a form of code-switching.
‘While our accents tend to become more resistant to change as we age, they can still be fluid in some circumstances.’
Even though Austin didn’t spend years living in Tupelo, Mississippi, and/or Memphis, Tennessee, where Elvis developed his own accent, the actor did spend years living and breathing The King.
‘Spending a large amount of time using a different accent consciously may contribute to a transformed accent,’ Esteban explains.
‘Most changes to your accent are likely to be a subtle shift and don’t tend to be made in a conscious way, particularly after your late twenties, as accents usually become less malleable as we get older.’
Even though Austin spent years aiming for and remaining in the perfect Memphis drawl, in time, Esteban says it will probably fade.
‘Austin Butler’s total accent change,’ he tells me, ‘is the result of sustained conscious effort.
‘Butler’s method approach to acting may have accelerated changes to his normal speaking voice, resulting in the mellifluous southern tones he now uses in interviews, after using this voice constantly and likely using vocal drills to hone his pronunciation.
‘However, unless he spends more time in the south, his accent is likely to soften and return to a more neutral Californian voice over time.’
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