Elvis star Austin Butler finds a new voice for The Bikeriders

LOS ANGELES – American actor Austin Butler is best known for his uncanny portrayal of American singer Elvis Presley in the biographical drama Elvis (2022), which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

The 32-year-old star from California immersed himself so much in his role and perfected the hoarse southern accent of the late rock’n’roll legend that a year later he still sounded like Presley in many interviews and performances.

Fans briefly wondered if Butler’s voice was changed forever, but in his role as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, one of the antagonists in the science fiction epic Dune: Part 2 (2024), he left all traces of Elvis behind.

And for the new crime drama “The Bikeriders,” which is showing in Singapore cinemas, he has changed his voice again.

Co-starring Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer, it is a fictional story inspired by the rise and fall of a real-life Chicago motorcycle club in the 1960s that slowly transformed from a community of speed-loving misfits into a dangerous gang.

Based on the 1968 photo book of the same name, the film mixes fictional and true elements. It is told from the perspective of young woman Kathy (Comer), who falls in love with a charismatic and ruthless biker named Benny (Butler).

Benny is taken under the wing of club leader Johnny (Hardy) and becomes one of his deputies, but his loyalty begins to waver when Kathy begs him to leave the increasingly violent group.

Butler says he carefully considered “how much of the (Chicago) dialect” he should capture for his character at the film’s recent premiere in Los Angeles, especially because he had no voice recordings of the real Benny to work with.

“I thought about it for some time beforehand. I wanted to find out where Benny fits into the overall picture of the film.”

Butler ultimately decided to adapt Benny’s accent to Kathy’s, which Comer – the Emmy-winning British star of the spy thriller series Killing Eve (2018-2022) – came up with after listening to a recording of the real woman.

“After listening to Jodie’s audio, I tried to find something that would match it.

“I think I approached it in a subtle way, but I worked with a dialect coach for it,” says the actor, who was accompanied to the premiere by his girlfriend Kaia Gerber, a 22-year-old American model and the daughter of former supermodel Cindy Crawford.

Jeff Nichols, screenwriter and director of “The Bikeriders,” says Butler managed to find a voice and accent that suited the role.

“I gave him examples of other people speaking and he had to absorb the world around him and find a voice that somehow fits his own body and the character,” says the 45-year-old American filmmaker, who also directed the biographical romantic drama “Loving” (2016).