Even after Elvis, Tom Hanks is still looking out for former co-star Austin Butler.
Austin Butler’s Oscar-nominated performance as Elvis Presley was no small feat – as many had pointed out during awards season, the actor’s speaking voice had seemingly permanently altered to match that of the King of Rock and Roll himself. Filmed in Australia at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic, Butler spent much of his time in isolation, immersed in the character he was portraying.
In an interview with GQ last year, Butler stated that he didn’t see his family for around three years over the course of filming Elvis. By the end of production, Butler felt that “You can lose touch with who you actually are. And I definitely had that when I finished Elvis — not knowing who I was,” he explained.
Now, in a new interview with The Times, Austin Butler revealed that Tom Hanks stepped in to help him with the comedown from his big role. Hanks, who played Elvis’ manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the film, advised him against taking a sabbatical after production wrapped. Instead, Hanks offered him a role in the limited series Masters of the Air, a WWII-based epic based on the US Air Force, on which Hanks serves as an executive producer.
At a dinner, Hanks said, “You have immersed yourself so deeply in Elvis that, for your mental health, it would be wise to go straight into something else,” according to Butler. His main piece of advice to the young actor was that “If you just jump off the train, you might have emotional whiplash.”
It seems that Butler took Hanks up on that advice, as the 31-year-old will play the lead role of Major Gale Cleven, a member of the 100th Bombardment Wing during the war. Butler will star alongside fellow 2023 Oscar Nominee Barry Keoghan, with Steven Spielberg also serving as an Executive Producer on the series.
The miniseries is set to be a spiritual sequel to fellow HBO shows based on WWII, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, also produced by Hanks and Spielberg. No release date has been announced, but it looks set to come out by the end of the year, according to IMDb.
This anecdote from Austin Butler makes it seem that Tom Hanks cares a lot for his former co-star and lives up to his reputation as one of Hollywood’s nicest guys.