How Austin Butler's Elvis Accent Created A Problem For Masters Of The Air

Austin Butler almost took the King of Rock n' Roll to work with him. In 2021, a few short days after the actor completed three consecutive years of filming "Elvis," he began working on Apple TV's "Masters of the Air." According to Butler, that wasn't enough time to get Elvis' accent, let alone the character, out of his head.

During an interview on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Butler admitted to hiring a dialect coach as a defensive measure to prevent three years of muscle memory from affecting his next project. "It was a lot. I was just trying to remember who I was, I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years," the actor said. He further explained how he flew to London to prepare for his next role during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to him being quarantined for ten days. During that time, Butler poured himself into learning about World War II to prepare for shooting "Masters of the Air." The actor also admitted that he had to work with a professional in an effort to avoid letting his "Elvis" work interfere with the new project. "I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis."

But the wrong accent sneaking into the wrong project might be the least of Butler's concerns because there's a chance that the voice of Elvis Presley might be a part of the actor for the rest of his life. 

Can accent work really change an actor's speaking quality? Celebrities have faked worse things for attention but altering one's vocal output is a physical act that can cause physical consequences, even damage if done incorrectly. Vocal coach Andrew M. Byrne told GQ in 2023 that an actor's character accent can alter their natural speaking voice if used frequently enough and with enough intensity.

"Someone who's doing something that requires a great deal of focus over a long period of time, and it's very salient ... that opens channels in the brain," Bryne explained. "That's called neuroplasticity. So whenever there's a process that combines those two things, there can be changes that can end up feeling very automatic or subconscious after it, because you've locked in on such an intense thing in such an important situation, and then stuff like where your voice lives can actually change. In the end, it's just muscles."

Three years is a staggering amount of time to maintain a character accent, let alone the accent of one of America's most famous voices. With both of Byrne's requisite boxes ticked — duration and intensity — it would almost be more shocking if Austin Butler walked away from "Elvis" unchanged. In early 2023, actor Dave Bautista let fans know that Butler handily dropped the infamous impersonation while filming "Dune 2." Audiences can determine for themselves whether or not his countermeasures were successful because the "Masters of the Air" is now streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes released every Friday until March 15, 2024.