Austin Butler Reveals The 1 Blockbuster He Walked Away From For Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Austin Butler has revealed he had a tough choice on his hands before signing up for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

In 2019, the Oscar nominee appeared as “Manson Family” member and murderer Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino’s hit movie.

However, around the same time, he’d been invited to do a screen test for the Top Gun sequel Maverick, but People has reported he told the Happy Sad Confused podcast he opted for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood as he’d long wanted to work with Quentin Tarantino.

“I’d already met with him, so I did that,” he explained.

As it turns out, this was probably the right call, as Variety reports that the Top Gun team were unsure whether Austin was old enough to play the role of Rooster, which ultimately went to Miles Teller.

It wasn’t all in vain, though, as the Top Gun casting process ultimately led to him landing the part of Elvis Presley in the 2022 musical biopic.

Through his work with Tom Hanks on Elvis, Austin then bagged a part in the Apple TV+ miniseries Masters Of The Air, which began streaming on Friday.

However, Austin has revealed there was one obstacle he had to overcome before filming began – his still-prevalent Elvis Presley voice that he picked up while making the hit Baz Luhrmann film.

The Golden Globe winner even told The Late Show earlier this week: “I had a dialect coach just to help me not sound like Elvis in that film.”

Austin is joined in Masters Of The Air by a star-studded cast including Barry Keoghan, Callum Turner and Ncuti Gatwa.