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How ‘Elvis’ re-creates Elvis Presley’s haunting
1977 performance of ‘Unchained Melody’
By Jen Yamato
Los Angeles Times
Austin Butler threw his voice, body and
soul into playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhr-
mann’s grandiose musical drama “Elvis,”
even recording his own versions of the
rock ‘n’ roll icon’s hip-swiveling, live-wire
early songs. But to bring the big-budget
epic to its showstopping close, Luhrmann
and Butler painstakingly re-created one of
Presley’s most famous and heart-rending
live performances: “Unchained Melody.”
The year was 1977. Presley, his body
visibly suff ering from years of drug abuse
and deteriorating health, took the stage in
his iconic bejeweled white jumpsuit for a
concert in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Two months later he would die at 42 at
home at Graceland. But on this night he
wanted to play his stripped-down version
of the Righteous Brothers ballad, which
he had recently recorded. It would hit
the charts posthumously a year after his
death, leaving a mournful grace note on his
legendary career.
Butler, of course, knew the tune well —
he’d sent in an audition tape of himself at
home performing his own tender take on
the Elvis classic. He’d become a meticulous
student of all things Elvis to prepare for the
role, poring over archival performances and
interviews to get the King’s every move and
mannerism down pat.
For most of “Elvis,” however, Butler
uses that research as a foundation to slip
into character and to be able to walk, talk,
dance, sing, improvise and emote as his
own interpretation of Presley — what Luhr-
mann describes as a “mixture of Austin and
Elvis’ spirits.” When it came to re-creating
certain performances, Luhrmann called
“trainspotting” moments — the beloved
numbers hardcore Elvis fans know every
detail of, inside and out — the pressure
ramped up.
Footage of Presley’s 1977 “Unchained
Warner Bros. Pictures
Austin Butler stars as Elvis Presley in the fi lm
“Elvis.”
Melody” performance has been viewed
over 10 million times on YouTube, for
example.
“Somebody is going to know exactly
how he placed his foot, how he placed his
hand or how he sang this song,” said Butler.
In it, Elvis off ers a rambling introduction,
then walks over to sit at a piano littered
with Coca-Cola cups. Friend and backup
singer Charlie Hodge holds a mic. Then,
pounding furiously on the piano keys, a
sweat-glistened Presley wails out the song
— which Butler did too, playing and singing
to playback under prosthetics and layers of
costuming.
“‘Unchained Melody’ was a physical
challenge because it was done with the
jumpsuit and the body adjustment suit
under that, and it squeezes your ribs to the
point where you can’t breathe,” said Butler.
“I felt very claustrophobic there and very
constricted, I couldn’t breathe and I was
really, really hot.”
But he was also moved by the uncanny
power that Elvis taps into in the original
performance.
“If you watch that video, you’ll see that
he gets half a sentence out and has to
take a breath,” said Butler. “When he sings
he belts it out, and it’s like you wouldn’t
even know.”
“I remember seeing the video and
thinking, ‘Oh, gosh. After that moment,
what else is there?’” said Luhrmann, whose
idea to use the actual 1977 Elvis tape
onscreen was initially met with resistance.
“There was a lot of, ‘Oh, no, we’d never do
that — we don’t like seeing Elvis like that.’
But the moment he looks at the camera
and smiles, he’s like a kid inside when
he sings. It makes the point of the whole
movie, which is that when he’s in front of an
audience, the spirit is so alive.”
As with other iconic Elvis performances
re-created throughout the fi lm — including
his 1968 Comeback Special and Las Vegas
show — Luhrmann and cinematographer
Mandy Walker matched lighting, lenses and
camera moves to their reference footage
and then unleashed Butler as Elvis.
The actor has played music for years but
“it’s always been just for me,” he says. Still,
Luhrmann knew he’d be throwing curve-
balls at his star. Filming a Vegas sequence
in which Elvis directs an orchestra in a new
arrangement of his 1954 hit “That’s All
Right,” Luhrmann nixed the playback they’d
been rehearsing with for six months when
the scene wasn’t quite working.
“I said, ‘I think you have to go for real, so
we’ll just unmute all the instruments and
you just be Elvis and make it up: You hear
the music, you know the orchestrations,’”
said Luhrmann. “That’s what Elvis did. And
Austin never shows fear, but I’ve never
seen him more scared. He was absolute-
ly white as a sheet and trembling in the
corner. [But] what’s in the movie is basically
a couple of takes. He just made it up ...
and I know from testing that it’s one of the
favorite scenes in the fi lm.”
By that time, Butler had already faced
the most daunting day of the shoot:
Re-creating the ‘68 Comeback Special with
300 extras while wearing a black leather
suit. Not only is it one of Presley’s most
iconic live performances, it was also But-
ler’s fi rst time performing as Elvis perform-
ing in the movie.
“It felt like this make-or-break moment
in my life, but it was also a make-or-break
moment in Elvis’ life; his career was on the
line,” said Butler. “So I just accepted that
the fear is going to be there, because I care
so much. But if I just channeled this into the
music and into building rapport with the
audience, then that’s what he would have
been doing.”
“I went out there and completely had an
out-of-body experience,” he said. “And it
turned out to be one of my most favorite
days.”
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