‘Elvis’: Why didn’t Baz Luhrmann cast Harry Styles as the lead?

The musical biopic ‘Elvis’, directed by Baz Luhrman and starring austin butler, will hit theaters on June 24 after having passed through the Cannes Film Festival, where it was applauded for 12 minutes. So far, the film sits at 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s certainly one of the biggest releases hitting theaters this year.

Alongside Butler, the film also stars Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker, who was Presley’s manager. The film, like all of Luhermann’s to date (‘Romeo + Juliet’, ‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘Moulin Rouge’), has been described as “exhilarating” and “full of energy”, while Butler has been praised. for his performance as the King of Rock. And it is that Luhrmann caused a lot of expectation since he shared the first teaser of the film.

However, a few weeks earlier, the singer Harry Styles confirmed that he auditioned for the role. While Styles definitely could have been a good fit to play an iconic rock star, Luhrmann shared why he didn’t cast him and what he saw in Butler.

When asked about Harry Styles’ audition, director Luhrmann told Fitzy & Wippa very candidly:

“Harry is a really talented actor. I would work on something with him. (However) the real problem with Harry is that he is Harry Styles. He is already an icon.”

Although the director clarified that he does not “audition”, but rather does “some really rich workshops”, he explained that Styles “he was desperate to suit up and explore. He is a great spirit and I have nothing but good things to say about Harry Styles“.

He also said that Butler was “almost born to play” Presley, citing that the actor also lost his mother at the same age as the rock star. “Now he’s going through a kind of deprogramming because it’s been a long time since he knew who he was“, he added.

Styles didn’t get the role, as did such powerful candidates as Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Austin Butler or Aaron Taylor-Johnson. However, the singer will appear in the second film directed by Olivia Wilde, ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ alongside the Oscar-nominated, Florence Pugh. Styles also has more projects like the romantic drama ‘My Policeman’ with the Emmy winner and one of the protagonists of ‘The Crown’, emma corrin.