Austin Butler recalls heartwarming memory of mother who died of cancer

During a candid interview on Sunday, Austin Butler recounted a cherished memory of his late mother Lori. 

The Elvis star went through a tragic loss in 2014 when his mother Lori passed away. This event triggered a battle with depression in the ensuing years.

In a recent interview with The Times while promoting his new Yves Saint Laurent fragrance, he shared a poignant childhood recollection of his mother. When asked about his earliest olfactory memory, he intriguingly recalled the scent of orange blossoms.

“Because in my childhood home there was this orange tree in the backyard and I remember so vividly when the tree would bloom.”

“My mother and I would go in the backyard and pick oranges and then go inside to make orange juice. And that really hit me.”

In a January conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Austin candidly shared the sad experience of losing his mother during his early twenties.

He shared that his mother, Lori, had noticed his talent of acting before anyone else. “My mom saw that in me, and I owe her for everything because she quit her job and drove me to auditions and took me to acting classes. Then I started working.”

However, his mother passed away in 2014 after battling cancer. “After my mom passed away, I'd never experienced pain like that before, and I started to question,” Austin admitted during the interview.

He shared that spending time with doctors and medical staff at hospitals he had begun to wonder if acting was a “a noble profession.”

He recalled that after his mother’s passing, he went to New Zealand to shoot a TV series. While there, he had fun shooting but would still “cry every night.”

“I was dealing with grief, but it was also this feeling that I wasn't aligned with something that felt truly fulfilling,” he added.

“I thought, 'I've got a little bit of money in the bank. I'll just take time off.” Then I started sinking into a deeper and deeper depression. It was about six or eight months of that.”

Subsequently, he took a pivotal step by submitting an audition tape for the Broadway production, The Iceman Cometh, featuring none other than Denzel Washington. He described being cast in it as “the moment that changed my career.”