Cindy Crawford Weighs in on Austin Butler’s Elvis Accent

Cindy Crawford isn't all shook up about Austin Butler. 

The supermodel, whose daughter Kaia Gerber is dating the Elvis star, shared her thoughts on the way his voice has changed after developing an Elvis Presley-inspired accent.

"That's just Austin to me," Cindy explained on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen July 24. "I didn't know he was from Anaheim. He spent so long being Elvis that I think it just stuck. I didn't know him pre-Elvis."

Since taking on the King of Rock 'N' Roll, the 31-year-old—whose romance with Kaia was made public in January 2022—has had trouble finding his voice again. So, when he was about to shoot his new TV show, Masters of the Air, he got some help to drop the music legend's accent.

"I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis," Austin admitted on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in January. "It was a whole thing."

"I was just trying to remember who I was," he continued. "I was trying to remember what I liked to do. All I thought about was Elvis for three years."

But it’s no surprise Austin became one with the “Can’t Help Falling in Love” singer. He was ready to go all in when he signed up for the role.

"When I began the process of this, I set out to make my voice identical to his," he told The AU Review in May 2022. "That was my goal, that if you heard a recording of him and heard a recording of me, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

But it seems he might’ve done too good of a job since fans couldn’t help but notice how his accent never quite went back to the way it once was. And he isn’t interested in letting the chatter get to him, either.

"If I was trying to sound like Elvis, I would sound very different right now," he told the Los Angeles Times in January 2022. "I think it's sort of amusing to me how much people want to focus on this one thing."

Keep reading to see every time Austin addressed the way he prepared for his role as the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll.

Before Elvis was released in June 2022, Austin Butler warned moviegoers that he couldn't exactly shake his transformation of Elvis Presley off. "At this point, I keep asking people, ‘Is this my voice?' because this feels like my real [voice]," he told Entertainment Tonight the same month. "It's one of those things where certain things trigger it." 

When signing up for the Elvis role, Austin had one goal in mind. "When I began the process of this, I set out to make my voice identical to his," he told The AU Review in May 2022. "That was my goal, that if you heard a recording of him and heard a recording of me, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference."

After Austin's publicist warned him about the conversation on social media surrounding his accent, the actor made it clear he was "getting rid" of it. It just won't happen overnight. "I have probably damaged my vocal cords with all that singing," he said on BBC One's Graham Norton Show in February 2023. "One song took 40 takes."

Still not satisfied with Austin's explanation? He has another reason. "I guess after three years of doing everything that I could to focus on this one goal of trying to bring life to Elvis in this film, I think that there's certain muscular habits that must pop up," he told the Los Angeles Times in January 2022. "If I was trying to sound like Elvis, I would sound very different right now. I think it's sort of amusing to me how much people want to focus on this one thing."

After winning the 2023 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama Film, the actor was asked about his accent again backstage. "I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time," he explained in the press room. "I had three years where [Elvis] was my only focus in life, so I'm sure there's just pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way."

"What you saw in that Golden Globes speech, that's him," Austin's voice coach Irene Bartlett told ABC's Gold Coast in January 2023. "It's genuine, it's not put on. I feel sorry people are saying that it's still acting [but] he's actually taken [the voice] on board. I don't know how long that will last, or if it's going to be there forever."

Perhaps the secret to bidding farewell to the accent is earning a new acting role. "I know that I'm constantly changing," he told ELLE Australia in June 2022. "Check in with me in 20 years when I've played a lot of roles, who knows what I'll sound like!"

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