Austin Butler revealed he was “intimidated” when he got a chance to meet Tom Hanks on Elvis set.
Austin, 31, who played the rock legend Elvis Presley in the biopic, opened up about his first meeting with Hanks at director Baz Lurhmann‘s house in Australia.
During his latest appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Austin shared, “Whenever you meet somebody that you admired for a long time you hope that they’re going to be warm to you. But you never really know.”
Austin and Hanks played the dynamic duo - Elvis and his manager Colonel Tom Parker.
He continued, “And somebody like Tom, he’s been doing this for so long and he’s such a master of his craft and so I was intimidated.”
“Tom turns around and sees me and goes, ‘My boy! Give me a hug,’ and he gives me the biggest bear hug,” Austin said, adding, “Then Baz said, ‘Let me give you guys a moment,’ and we just talked for so long.”
“At one point [Hanks] said, ‘You know I was at the studio earlier today and I was choosing which doors I was going to throw up outside of for the first couple of weeks.’ And I said, ‘Why? You nervous?” and he goes, ‘Yeah. I’m so nervous.’ I said, ‘You’re nervous? I’m terrified.’ He goes, ‘Nobody knows what Colonel Parker sounds like. Everyone knows what Elvis sounds like.'”
“Suddenly we were colleagues you know,” Austin told Norton, adding, “We were both being able to share in our fear and we were joined in that way.”