Vanessa Hudgens Reacts to Ex Austin Butler’s Permanent Elvis Accent

Austin Butler can't seem to shake his Elvis accent — and his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens can't help but react.

When Austin took the role of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's surreal, glitzy Elvis biopic, he probably knew the music icon would be part of him forever — but he may not have expected that the Elvis voice would stick around, too.

Austin's deep drawl has become a bit of a joke among fans, given that his… previous voice was legions away from the slow, low cadence he uses today.

In a recent interview, Austin's voice coach from the film revealed that his voice could be “forever” changed by the work the actor did to transform into Elvis. On January 19, @ryinskott posted a screenshot of Page Six's headline about Austin's dramatic voice change to Instagram, joking in the caption: “He went to the Lady Gaga school of Oscar campaign acting.” Shortly after the post went up, fans quickly spotted a familiar name amongst the comments.

“Crying,” commented Vanessa Hudgens.

Austin and Vanessa dated for roughly nine years before officially calling it quits in January 2020. (Since, Austin has been dating Kaia Gerber and Vanessa has moved on with MLB player Cole Tucker.)

It's well-known that Vanessa was the one who first encouraged Austin to audition to play Elvis Presley. Back in 2019, Vanessa shared a sweet anecdote about her then-BF while appearing on Live with Kelly and Ryan. 

“Last December, we were driving along and we were listening to Christmas music, and then an Elvis Presley Christmas song came on. He had just dyed his hair dark. He's a natural blond, and I was looking at him and he was singing along and I was like, ‘Babe, you need to play Elvis,’” said Vanessa. “Then in January, he was sitting at the piano. And he's playing and he's singing and I'm like, 'I don't know how, but you need to figure out how you can play Elvis. Like, I don't know how we get rights or what we do, but you need to play him.'”

However, when Austin retells the story now, he doesn't refer to Vanessa by name. Earlier this month, Austin retold Vanessa's anecdote almost verbatim during The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable, calling Vanessa “a friend.”

"The month before I heard that Baz was making the movie, I was going to look at Christmas lights with a friend," Austin said. “There was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio and I was singing along, and my friend looked over at me and goes, 'You've got to play Elvis.' I said, 'Oh, that's such a long shot.'”

"A couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano," continued Austin. “I never really sang for any of my friends or anything. That same friend was there and I was playing the piano. She said, 'I'm serious. You gotta figure out how you can get the rights to a script.' Then my agent called and said, ‘So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film.’”

Since Austin landed the role of Elvis, he's received critical acclaim for his performance as the late music icon, even taking home the 2023 Best Actor Golden Globe. His acceptance speech at the Golden Globes instantly went viral, with many online pointing out that he still sounds like Elvis. However, his voice coach doesn't believe it's an effect he's using for awards season — she says it's all Austin.

“What you saw in that Golden Globes speech, that’s him. It’s genuine, it’s not put on,” said Irene Bartlett, Austin's voice coach from Elvis. “I feel sorry people are saying that, you know, it’s still acting... he’s actually taken [Elvis's voice] on board.”

Bartlett told an Australian ABC affiliate that the change may be permanent in part because Austin was prepping for the immersive role back during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Because of COVID shutdowns he was working on it all the time, and it's difficult to switch off something you've spent so much focus time on," she explained.

Austin didn't just speak as Elvis; he also sang almost all of the music in the movie, up until Elvis's later years. Bartlett shared that attempting to channel older Elvis could have strained Austin's voice. 

"The muscles, ligaments the cartilages, so the actual structure of the instrument, which is the larynx, that's not stabilized until they're in their early 30s," she explained. "So, like an athlete, if you overdo the voice too early, too young, or try to impose a sound that's not natural to that voice, then eventually that voice will tire out and you'll have problems."

Austin Butler himself has talked about how the role changed him. After filming wrapped, he was rushed to the hospital with a virus. “You can lose touch with who you actually are," he said at the time. "And I definitely had that when I finished Elvis — not knowing who I was. My body just started shutting down the day after I finished Elvis."

Austin is also very aware that there's conversation around the voice change, though he himself doesn't notice it. "I don't think about it. I don't think that I sound like him still. But I guess I must because I hear it a lot," Austin said after accepting his Golden Globe for his performance in the biopic. "You know, I often liken it to someone who lives in another country for a long time. I had three years where [the role] was my only focus in life, so I'm sure there will always be pieces of my DNA that will always be linked in that way."