Movies
The unusual methods Austin Butler adopted to gain weight for ‘Elvis’ role
Austin Butler microwaved Häagen-Dazs to transform his body into older Elvis Presley for the 2022 biopic ‘Elvis’.
Oscar-nominated actor Austin Butler took an unusual approach to embodying the King of Rock and Roll in the film ‘Elvis’. Hoping to resemble Elvis Presley in his later years, Butler microwaved bowls of ice cream and other junk food.
In an interview with Variety, Austin Butler gave fans a sneak peak into his diet while preparing for Baz Luhrmann’s award-winning film. Consisting of melted ice cream and donuts by the dozen, Butler admits it took a toll on his health.
Butler packed on the pounds
“I would go get two dozen doughnuts and eat them all. I really started to pack on some pounds,” the actor revealed. “It’s fun for a week, [but then] you feel awful about yourself.”
The Best Actor nominee commented on the difficulty shooting different eras of Elvis’ career non-chronologically with Butler’s weight gain.
“Initially I thought we could probably take a break halfway through and I can gain the weight for the later stuff,” said Butler. “But just with the way that we shot it, we weren’t able to do that.”
Butler’s ice cream methods were inspired by Ryan Gosling
Austin Butler’s inspiration came from another Hollywood heartthrob’s movie-prepping methods. Ryan Gosling prepared for a role in the 2009 film ‘The Lovely Bones’ by microwaving Häagen-Dazs and drinking it.
“I heard that Ryan Gosling, when he was going to do ‘The Lovely Bones,’ had microwaved Häagen-Dazs and would drink it. So I started doing that,” the actor revealed.
Unfortunately, Gosling’s methods did not pan out as well as they did for Butler. Gosling was cut from the film shortly before production, replaced by Mark Wahlberg.
“We had a different idea of how the character should look,” Gosling later divulged, referring to the creative vision of ‘The Lovely Bones’ director Peter Jackson.
“I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed.”
Luckily for Butler, his junk food-focused commitment to embodying the role of Elvis was well appreciated.
The actor’s portrayal of the rock legend resulted in his first-ever Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, with the film receiving eight nominations overall.