Austin Butler says he ‘owes a lot’ to ex Vanessa Hudgens for ‘Elvis’ role

Austin Butler finally acknowledged that Vanessa Hudgens was the “friend” who told him to play Elvis Presley.

Butler landed the role of Elvis Presley in the 2022 Baz Luhrmann directed biopic of the late King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. The actor, 31, earned his first-ever Golden Globe and got his first ever Oscar nomination for his portrayal.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Butler clarified a previous comment he made about a ‘friend’ who told him ‘You've got to play Elvis,’

“I was with my partner at the time,” he told the outlet on January 24th, 2023.

When asked if he was, in fact, speaking about Vanessa, Austin confirmed.

“We’d been together for so long and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment and so I really, I owe her a lot for believing in me,” he shared.

Butler and Hudgens dated from 2011 to 2020, but he’s been dating Cindy Crawford’s daughter, model Kaia Gerber, since late 2021.

The actor had narrated the story of how he got the lead role in Elvis, earlier this month during The Hollywood Reporter interview.

“The month before I heard that Baz was making the movie, I was going to look at Christmas lights with a friend, and there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio and I was singing along, and my friend looked over at me and goes, ‘You’ve got to play Elvis.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s such a long shot’,” Butler said, without mentioning Hudgens by name.

“Then my agent called and said, ‘So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film …’ The hairs just stood up on my arms,” he said at the time.

However, fans pieced together that the High School Musical star was the subject of the story, as she told a nearly identical anecdote back on a 2019 episode of Live with Kelly and Ryan, via Billboard.