Here’s how Denzel Washington helped Austin Butler secure ‘Elvis’ role

Austin Butler owes his Golden Globe accolade to Denzel Washington.

The actor won the award for best actor in a motion picture, drama, for his role in Elvis, on Tuesday, January 10th, 2023, per multiple media outlets.

During his acceptance speech, the actor addressed Washington, 68, directly for helping him.

“Also, I gotta thank Denzel Washington,” the Elvis star said during his speech. “Denzel, thank you for your kindness, thank you for your generosity and championing me when you did not have to.”

“I am so grateful for all eternity to you,” Butler added.

While Washington did not appear in the film nor did he work behind the scenes on the biopic, he helped Butler secure the role by giving director Luhrmann a call to advocate on Butler's behalf. The Oscar winner appeared with Butler in a 2018 Broadway production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, back in May 2022, Luhrmann, 60, said that Washington cold-called him shortly after he first encountered a video of Butler performing a cover of Presley's Unchained Melody.

“He found me,” the director said when asked why did he choose Butler for the role. “I received this videotape of this young man in a flood of tears playing Unchained Melody, and I thought, ‘Wow, what is that? How is that happening?’ And then I got a call from Denzel Washington, who gave me a cold call.”

“I did not know Denzel,” he clarified of the call to the outlet. “And he said, ‘I’ve just worked with this guy on stage. I’ve never seen a work ethic like it’. And I'm like, ‘Okay, I must see him’.”

He continued, “Honestly, I put him through the wringer, but he lived Elvis,” Luhrmann added of the performance. “What he's managed to do is not do an impersonation, but to live Elvis, to the extent that he's humanised him.”