This was Luhrmann’s call, 100%. I just ran across this from an interview with him about the weird Hanks accent. He really was going for a superhero movie, so he wanted an obviously evil villain in the form of Parker.
Luhrmann “thought it was very important that Tom present the audience with a strangeness, a sort of ‘What is going on with this guy?’”
I like his performance even more now that I’ve had time to sit with it and compare it with a few clips of Elvis performing at concerts and on TV. Butler takes one particular artistic liberty that is just so compelling and effective.
In every archival clip I’ve seen (both on TV and at live concerts), young Elvis is just funny, and sweet, and shy until he starts singing, and then he gets jittery, wacky, taken by the spirit of the music, smiling and flirting with his fans but otherwise totally enthralled by the music itself.
Segregationists and puritans may have read racially ambiguous malevolence into his behaviour, but it doesn’t read like that at all (I don’t think) through the rearview mirror of history. We see a dyed-in-the-wool music fan, or somebody who learned to jump and jive in a Black Pentecostal church (or both!). We can’t really go back and see him with the fresh eyes of a 14 year old white fan raised in a puritanical post-war household, or through the fearful, hateful eyes of their 40 year old dad who was a Klan member. We see something pure and playful that was judged harshly based on clothing, movement, and rhythms associated with Black culture – a once-verboten combination of a white body and Black symbols that now just reads as “rock.”
I think Butler really did his homework and understands that contemporary audiences (especially younger folks for whom Elvis is more of a trope than a person) aren’t going to read rebellion and danger into a jittery cutiepie in a jazzy suit. Decades of psych rock, metal, and punk provocateurs – not to mention the sexual revolution and the civil rights movement – have changed our perspective immeasurably.
So what does Austin do? And how does Baz soundtrack it? Just before the scene where Elvis is drafted, we get the deliciously menacing song “Trouble” a bit earlier than the historical record would place it in Elvis’ repertoire, totally outside the context of Elvis the Family-Friendly Movie Star the King Creole (where he plays – shock! – a singing cutiepie).
In that scene, we get Austin’s Elvis in tailored head-to-toe black: more of a call forward to Johnny Cash or Jim Morrison than a call back to singing in tails to a dog on TV. As his audience vibrates toward a riot, Austin attacks/strangles his microphone with bared teeth and a ferocious snarl that goes well beyond Elvis’ trademark lip curl. Austin’s Elvis gets on his knees, inches from his fans, jutting his groin into their faces, then writhes on his back while screaming, “Evil!” Feedback and static corrupt and stutter the music.
I lost it. I got it. I loved it. I felt like Elvis had been tangibly, materially translated for an audience whose cultural vocabulary irrevocably includes decades of shock rock, blood, black leather, glam, mohawks, light shows, you name it. Austin’s artistic license, at its best, simulcasts the mythos of Elvis forward and backward through cultural time and cultural touchstones.
I keep thinking I’m done, but the responses to this thread keep getting better. Thanks, y’all. 
I read an interview Austin Butler did after the movie was in the can and he had had a chance to rest. Apparently, he contracted some sort of virus that mimics the symptoms of an appendicitis. He said his body was telling him it had to rest.
As far as his portrayal went, he said he didn’t want to do an impression of Elvis, but, paradoxically, he wanted to connect with his soul. He would sleep with interview recordings of Elvis playing softly near his head. He said he wanted to depict his humanity and humor, not do a caricature of him.
To prepare physically, he worked with a movement coach for months, watching and breaking down all of Elvis’s onstage dancing and moves. Butler trained in karate as well as swing and tap dancing to “loosen up” his body. The list of prep goes on and on. The guy did his homework and put in the hard training to attempt to embody Elvis’s essence. I think that’s what we pick up when we watch him on screen. He is sincere in his heartfelt desire to do justice to the man and his memory.
Yes!! (I think I watched the same interview clip.) The scene I was describing above would definitely be an instance (imo) of where Austin used his skills as an actor to show us how Elvis was probably feeling under pressure, vs. what his southern courtesy allowed him to express as a young man.
Absolutely. To Butler, Elvis is an historical figure worthy of honoring in a serious manner.
I watched Butler on Stephen Colbert. It was obvious he remains in awe of Elvis, the way he affected music, and the way he was tragically robbed of a satisfying creative career and life.
I have spent a lot of time lately listening to Dwight Yoakam. Not just because his cover of “Suspicious Minds” is superb (first version I heard as a kid!), but also because he has had the kind of career someone like Elvis deserved. (I needed some solace!) He’s sold a gajillion records, appeared in dozens of films, enjoys the occasional glitzy/glam stage costume, somehow keeps a low profile, and gets to stay weird & do whatever he wants - plays with cool artists, goes whole hog on his unique brand of country rock, etc., etc.
I’ve really appreciated Yoakum’s acting and his non-celeb, no BS attitude. He’s a good guy.
The first time I saw Dwight Yoakum act was in Sling Blade, which was written and directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Man, did Yoakum own that role. Truly impressive.
I’ve never seen Sling Blade! I just remember it doing well at the Oscars when I was too young for that sort of movie. Maybe it’s time to fix that. 
It’s great. Billy Bob won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama, too.
His portrayal is uncannily immersive. And he directed the film at the same time. Very impressive.
OK, I’m sold!
Oh no! Please call out sick from work and watch it asap. For me, it instantly put Billy Bob at the top of the acting heap with the other legends.
Just be ready for some serious traumatic abuse descriptions though. It’s not a happy movie, despite having a part that can be looked at as triumphant.
Sling Blade is literature adapted superbly to film. Its subject matter and characters unfold subtly and unflinchingly, depicting humanity‘s range of heart-breaking tenderness and utter wretchedness. It tells a serious story worth pondering.
I LOVED his character in the Fargo series. And his disgruntled supporting role in Tombstone is a favourite too.
I have Monday off because of some royal funeral, so I’ll watch it then.
Thanks for the note of caution! Lots of generational abuse trauma in my family so I’ll take my state of mind into consideration before I hit “play.”
Watch him in Goliath on Amazon Prime.
Amazing.
And Bad Santa during the holidays (without the kids).
Goliath is a great series.
I love that movie.
“You’re gonna put that Santa hat on so fast that you’re gonna get fucking hat-burn.”