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Topics: Film and TV, Leonardo DiCaprio, Music
Poppy Bilderbeck
Austin Butler has revealed what Leonardo DiCaprio said to him ahead of him taking on the role of Elvis in the recently released biopic.
Austin Butler stars as the King of Rock and Roll in Elvis which came out in cinemas on Friday, 24 June.
The biopic is directed by Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.
However, Butler has since opened up about the advice he received from DiCaprio before taking on the role.
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Butler revealed DiCaprio gave him the advice while they were working together on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by Quentin Tarantino.
He told EW: "Leo told me, 'Baz is going to constantly keep you off balance, and it's going to pull things out of you [that] you never knew you had inside you.
"That's exactly the experience that I had."
Butler admitted that some days he found himself thinking, 'Baz, why don't we just do what we prepared?'
However, the actor noted he 'realised [the director] would push [him] right to the edge of what [he] was capable of'.
"You capture lightning in a bottle in a way — if you had just done the thing that you had prepared, it may have been more stale," he reflected.
Butler continued: "In order to play jazz, you have to know music theory. You have to know the scales on that guitar inside and out, but at the end of the day, you're improvising. You have all this knowledge and practice that is then going into this present moment and playing off whatever's in front of you.
"That's how Baz is because he works so hard at preparation.
"When it comes time to actually film, I'll have been preparing a scene for a year, and suddenly, the day of, the entire scene changes."
DiCaprio speaks from experience, having worked with Luhrmann himself on multiple films.
The pair worked together on 1996 classic Romeo + Juliet and also teamed up for The Great Gatsby in 2013.
The advice has certainly served Butler well, as calls have already been growing for the 30-year-old to receive an Oscar for his performance as Elvis.
The King's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, also agreed the actor should win an award.
She said: "A thousand percent... I mean, truly. You know, I’m a bit biased, but absolutely, 100 percent... I can look at it objectively as well, sure.
"I think that he did such an incredible job."
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