Austin Butler wowed audiences with his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s rock and roll biographical drama Elvis, and his win at the Golden Globe Awards on Tuesday cemented his place in the A-list of young Hollywood stars. However, there was a point when such a role and the accolades that come with it were not on Butler’s agenda. As the actor recently recalled during The Hollywood Reporter’s Roundtable, the death of his mother caused him to question whether acting was a “noble” enough profession to continue in the business. He said:

“After my mom passed away, I’d never experienced pain like that before, and I started to question. Suddenly I was around doctors and people that were hurting a lot in hospitals, and I thought, ‘Is acting a noble profession? Should I be doing this or should I give myself in some way that can help people who are dealing with cancer or something like that?’ After my mom passed away, I went straight to New Zealand to start shooting a young adult TV show. A lot of people enjoyed the show, and I had fun doing horseback riding and that sort of thing, but I’d go home and cry every night. I was dealing with grief, but it was also this feeling that I wasn’t aligned with something that felt truly fulfilling. I got done with that show, once they canceled it after two seasons, and I said, ‘I would rather not work as an actor than ever do something like that again.’"

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Austin Butler’s Success Was Partly Set In Motion by His Mother’s Commitment

     Warner Bros.

During the session, Butler talked about his first steps in the business, when he had no specific goals and fell into acting by accident. However, he soon realized that he felt at home as an actor, which led to his mother taking on a pivotal role in ensuring he could fulfill his desire to act. He continued:

You can check out Butler’s award-winning performance in Elvis on HBO Max, where the movie is currently streaming.

“I started at about 12. I just stumbled into extra work. I was an incredibly shy kid. If that kid knew that I was sitting around all my heroes right now, talking like this in public, he wouldn’t believe it. But being around other actors, suddenly I felt like I’d found my tribe. I started wanting to be around other people. My mom saw that in me, and I owe her for everything because she quit her job and drove me to auditions and took me to acting classes. Then I started working. This was in the heyday of Nickelodeon, and you’d make 100 bucks a day or something, and, as a kid, that was huge! Then, as I started to get certain mentors who’d say, ‘You’ve got to watch Raging Bull and East of Eden,’ I started falling in love with the craft.”