• In the end, Austin Butler admitted that Vanessa Hudgens was the “friend.”
• Who suggested he play Elvis Presley.
• Austin Butler claims he owes his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens a lot

Austin Butler was cast as Elvis Presley. The actor, who is 31 years old, received his first-ever Golden Globe nomination for his performance. Butler addressed a prior statement he made about a “friend” who advised him, “You have got to play Elvis,” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

On January 24th, 2023, he said to the publication, “I was with my partner at the time. Austin said that he was indeed talking about Vanessa when asked. She had this sort of clairvoyant moment after we had been dating for a while, and he said, “I really, truly owe her a lot for believing in me.

Butler dated Hudgens from 2011 until 2020, but since late 2021, he has been seeing Cindy Crawford’s daughter, model Kaia Gerber. The actor had narrated the story of how he got the lead role in Elvis, earlier this month during The Hollywood Reporter interview.

I was driving to see Christmas lights with a buddy the month before I learned that Baz was making the film, and as I was singing along to an Elvis Christmas song on the radio, my friend turned to me and said, “You have got to play Elvis.'” Without specifically addressing Hudgens, Butler added, “I replied, ‘Oh, it is such a far shot.

Then my agent called to inform me that Baz Luhrmann is producing an Elvis movie. On my arms, the hairs just sprang up,” he recalled at the time. Fans eventually deduced that the High School Musical actress was the subject of the tale, as she had previously shared a virtually identical narrative on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2019, according to Billboard.

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