• Austin Butler claims to his mystery friend ex Vanessa Hudgens.
• He dismissed his friend’s idea as a “long shot” and dismissed it.
• Butler did not reveal the identity of his constant supporter.

Austin Butler, who dated Vanessa Hudgens for almost nine years, frequently mentioned the actress as a “friend” while talking about how he got the part of Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic with the same name.

The 31-year-old Golden Globe winner said during this year’s Hollywood Reporter Actor’s Roundtable, “I was going to look at Christmas lights the month before I learned that [director] Baz [Luhrmann] was making the [“Elvis”] movie.”

I was singing along to an Elvis Christmas song that was playing on the radio when my friend turned to me and said, “You’ve got to play Elvis!”

Butler claimed he dismissed his friend’s idea as a “long shot” and dismissed it.

He continued, “And then a few weeks later, I started playing piano,” adding that he “never actually sang for any of [his] buddies.”

He continued, “I was playing piano, and that same friend was there. You need to figure out how to obtain the rights to a script, she added, “I’m serious.”

The actor claimed that days later, his representative called to let him know about Luhrmann’s proposal. He said, “And the hairs just rose up on my arms.”

Butler did not reveal the identity of his constant supporter, but Hudgens shared a virtually identical tale on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” in August 2019, a month after her then-boyfriend was revealed as the movie’s leading man.

Butler and Hudgens dated from 2011 until their breakup in January 2020. Fans believe Butler should have shown the actress the “respect” of correctly identifying her while sharing his success story, even if the actor is currently making out on red carpets with girlfriend Kaia Gerber while Hudgens is over over heels for MLB player Cole Tucker.

On a video of the incident, one angry TikToker wrote, “Her name is Vanessa,” and another added, “I absolutely love him. I think he did a fantastic job in this film, but I detest the fact that he called her a friend.

“[He] could [have] at least mentioned ex-girlfriend as it’s Vanessa so you know,” countered another critic.

Others, though, didn’t agree, with one appearing to believe that Butler “would have got [sic] hate either way.”

Another person on social media responded, “Y’all saying he should have said nessa bye that would have been a pr nightmare all the emphasis would have been on their prior relationship.”

But someone retorted, “I think he could have said’my GF at that time’ just a little bit of respect of the person she was for him for so many years,” in response to the aforementioned.

As a result of his portrayal of the King of Rock and Roll on Tuesday, Butler went on to win the 2023 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.

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