Elvis

KING MAKER

Director Baz Luhrmann’s latest big-screen epic tackles the story of Elvis Presley, from childhood years to becoming a 20th-century icon. James Mottram met Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge who take on the major tasks of portraying Elvis and his equally legendary wife Priscilla

Some things are just meant to be. When Austin Butler was in a car listening to Christmas songs by the king of rock’n’roll, his friend turned to him and said, ‘you know, you need to play Elvis Presley’. A month later, he learned that Baz Luhrmann, the Australian maestro behind Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge!, was looking for actors to play the lead in a biopic of Elvis’ life. Talk about kismet. ‘I kind of thought, “this feels like the stars aligning right here”,’ he reflects over Zoom, more than three years after embarking on a life-altering, career-changing journey.

At the age of 30, Butler is no newcomer, having featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die. But playing Elvis was different. ‘I had never met Baz before, but I thought, “I’m gonna treat it like I got the job”. And so I started researching as though I was going to make the movie. I turned down every audition and said, “I’m only focusing on this one thing”. And I spent weeks at that point, just obsessing and learning little details and trying to find his humanity: “I can see the icon of Elvis, I can see the godlike version of Elvis that people look at, but where’s the human being?”’

It’s a question that will surely have been on Luhrmann’s mind too, pulling together a film that steers Presley from his early days at the birth of rock’n’roll to global fame, his career rollercoastering through the 1950s and 60s. Accompanying him is love-of-his-life Priscilla, played by 24-year-old Australian Olivia DeJonge. ‘We show how much she gave up to be with him and to support him,’ she says. ‘She really knew what he meant to people. Their relationship, I hope, feels very grounded. Like a breath of fresh air throughout the craziness that was his career.’

For Butler, it all started with the songs. Initially, he sent a video to Luhrmann of him singing ‘Unchained Melody’, and when the director responded to that, he began to spend months with him. This was all before he knew for sure he’d got the role. ‘We’d film things and he’d say, “why don’t you come in tomorrow and sing “Suspicious Minds”?” And I’d go home and practice and I’d come back the next day to do that. And then he’d go, “why don’t you come in tomorrow and sing “Hound Dog” or “Don’t Be Cruel”?” And then I’d come in and I’d do that. We did that for months and months and months.’

Taking on such a monumental role didn’t come without trepidation. ‘Every day I would be afraid . . . I don’t want to fall short, let everybody down. And I don’t want to let myself down; I don’t want to let Elvis down. I want to do him justice,’ admits Butler. ‘I’d wake up at four in the morning, every morning, with my heart pounding, and just be terrified. And I’d go, “OK, use that fear as energy and get to work”. I’d start researching and I would practice my singing or walk down the beach for hours just listening to his voice.’ It was time very well spent.

DeJonge, who appears in HBO series The Staircase alongside Toni Collette, remembers her first day on the Elvis set, seeing Butler sing in

Meet the Presleys: Austin Butler and Olivia DeJonge transform into Elvis and Priscilla while (opposite page) the pair take direction from Baz Luhrmann

front of hysterical extras for one of the film’s elaborate concert scenes. ‘Honestly, watching him perform was almost transcendental,’ she says. ‘This guy’s put in so much work for so long. He really did such an incredible job and to watch that was really, really magical.’ Shot in 2020 as the pandemic took hold (production was halted while Tom Hanks, costarring as Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker, recovered from covid), the feeling on wrapping was one of exhilaration. ‘We’d all been through the trenches,’ adds DeJonge. ‘We’re all coming out the other side going, “what is going on in the world?”’

While there have been Elvis biopics before (John Carpenter famously made a 1979 television movie starring Kurt Russell), Luhrmann’s track record of blending music and performance makes this latest effort a mustsee. ‘Coming from Baz’s mind, anything that he does is unique because he’s a brilliant, singular filmmaker,’ says Butler. Moreover, telling this story through the ‘unreliable narrator’ that is Elvis’ machiavellian manager, with their relationship central to the film’s dynamic, adds to a feeling of this being a true original.

That the singer’s name still means something to viewers far too young to have lived through Elvis-mania suggests just how timeless and influential his music is. DeJonge notes that Elvis and Priscilla came from a time long before social media, but which still elevated them in the eyes of many to mythic status. ‘A lot of what we saw of these people was strictly in magazines or newspapers, a photo here and there. It touches on that . . . how celebrity has changed with the age of social media. But I also just think that they had a really beautiful love story that people were rooting for.’

DeJonge’s prep wasn’t quite as exacting as Butler’s. One self-tape and three months later she had the role, immediately diving into Priscilla’s character. ‘From the get-go, the way that she expresses her femininity was always very fascinating to me. She’s a very, very hyper-feminine girl.’ One anecdote from her autobiography Elvis And Me particularly resonated. ‘There was an obsessive fan waiting outside of the house and she basically went to fight her. That really surprised me, but I kind of loved it because it showed her bite . . . she had a fire going under her. But I remember reading it and being like, “no way!”’

As for Butler, playing Elvis left its mark. He studied with Polly Bennett, the movement coach who previously helped Rami Malek become Freddie Mercury on Bohemian Rhapsody, learning how to gyrate the way Elvis did on stage. ‘It’s taken a toll on my body,’ he says, admitting that the day after we speak, he’s got an MRI scan. ‘My back’s been sort of messed up since I finished. And it explains why Elvis had to take pain medication because his body was hurting. He had moved in a certain way for a long period of time.’ No pain, no gain, as they say. But for Butler and DeJonge, it’s been well worth it.

Ahead of headlining the Riverside Festival, music icon and self-confessed ‘wonky dancer’ Róisín Murphy speaks to Fiona Shepherd about trying her hand at acting, scaring photographers and how Sheffi eld infl uenced her latest album

SCENE STEELER

There is a sense of déjà vu when Zooming with Róisín Murphy from her living room. Perhaps that’s because so many of us have watched the former Moloko frontwoman dancing, singing, dressing up and generally showing out from her home during lockdown. Her spontaneous spirit-lifting performances ultimately led to a full livestream concert on Mixcloud which she conceived, directed and delivered to mark the release of her latest album Róisín Machine.

‘It was just a natural “I’ve got dresses, I will wear them” type thing,’ she says. ‘I think I dressed up more in the lockdowns than I do normally. I was in a really good mood putting out Róisín Machine. We’d worked on and off for ten years on this record so it was joyful to put it out, even in the midst of all the madness.’

Making the album took her back to her old Steel City stomping ground, spiritually and literally. Murphy was born in Wicklow, Ireland, raised in Manchester and now lives between London and Ibiza. But she first found her tribe after moving to Sheffield at the age of 19, forming Moloko with her then-partner Mark Brydon in the mid-90s. Her current collaborator, the DJ/producer Richard Barratt aka Parrot, works out of his Sheffield studio and coaxed Murphy northwards to record some stellar vocals.

‘People say it’s a disco record but I would say it’s a Sheffield record more than anything else,’ says Murphy. ‘Down deep at the core of it is this clang of steel. I was reading about the Human League and Heaven 17 people-watching David Bowie on

I could see the fear in his eyes ”

Top Of The Pops and then getting dressed up in their sister’s blouse, putting on makeup and trying to get to the only weirdo pub in town. There’s a direct line that goes right back to glam rock.’

Style is all part of the equation for Murphy, who has been dubbed art-pop royalty for her playful, sculptural outfits and fierce vision, as showcased on the sleeve of Róisín Machine. ‘She’s a bit of a punk as well as a disco dolly,’ says Murphy of her album cover alter ego. ‘I wanted a little bit of aggression, but the photographer is a very classy guy who often shoots for Vogue, and I don’t think he expected the ruggedness I brought on the day. I could see the fear in his eyes; he was afraid of what he was photographing, which I think is the right way to go about it.’

That ability to invest in character has not gone unnoticed. Later this year, Murphy will make her screen acting debut playing a witch in the Netflix adaptation of Sally Green’s young adult novel Half Bad. ‘The director was a fan and just thought I’d be good at playing a witch, ha ha!’ she deadpans. ‘It wasn’t that much work: a few days shooting, a little bit of dubbing into other people’s mouths, like I was possessing them. It was fun, it was interesting, and the outfits are fabulous.’

Murphy has aspirations to do more directing of her own, with an Irish family saga based on her own parents as a dream project. But, for now, this singer, style icon, lockdown tonic and self-confessed ‘wonky dancer’ is back out on the road, pitching up in the ‘best town in the fucking land’ for the Riverside Festival in Glasgow. There she headlines alongside the diversely danceable likes of Carl Cox, Derrick Carter, Celeste and recent List cover star Bemz. ‘We did miss dancing together, didn’t we?’ she reflects. ‘I do often romanticise my parents’ era where people used to sing songs together all the time, but they didn’t do as much dancing as we do. My generation went right back to the beginning and became tribal about dance and it became something you did three, four, five times a week with other people in mass environments, communicating on this other level. It is a 3D sculpture of music. I’m not a great dancer but what I do know is music, so I can feel when changes are going to come so I can then make a ham-fisted attempt at being symmetrical. Dancing helps you understand music and understanding music helps you dance.’

Róisín Murphy headlines Riverside Festival, Glasgow, Saturday 4 June.

Everybody knows the first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club. Flight Club, on the other hand, seems eminently more Instagrammable. You’ll find Flight Club Sunday (a weekly blind-tasting of five carefully selected malts for a very reasonable £40) at Tipsy Midgie, a shiny new whisky bar on Edinburgh’s St Leonard’s Hill. Helmed by Colin Hinds, formerly of Kilted Lobster, it aims to both celebrate and demystify the water of life, with weekly distillery discovery events as well as regular chocolate and whisky pairings. If a self-directed wander through the hundreds of bottles lining the back bar suits the cut of your jib better, their ‘can and a dram’ options are a modern (though still grandad-approved) take on the old ‘hauf and a hauf’. Meanwhile, perfect gin serves and creative cocktails are also available if whisky ain’t your thing. (Jo Laidlaw) n tipsymidgie.com EAT DRINK SHOP

KEEP ON

TRUCKING

With the impending arrival of summer, David Kirkwood discovers how street-food vendors are preparing for their busiest time of year and finds a scene where standards and expectations are firmly on the up

Summer is peering round the corner and we’re just about into full ‘festival season’. And that means many a weekend will offer gatherings both big and small, as well as artsy, musical and gastronomical, all across the central belt. What people can eat has become an increasingly significant selling point for many, with high standards and a bit of exoticism expected, as these moveable little feasts shift from recurring city-based street-food events and onto larger crowds.

‘We tend to not take wedding bookings in the summer months,’ says Beth Davies from Alloa-based Stag Bites The Hog. She and husband Liam are booked up for a fair few biggies: musical monsters the Riverside Festival and TRNSMT, as well as the WOD On The Loch Fitness Festival in Luss. They also took part in the Scottish leg of the Eat & Drink Festival at Glasgow’s SEC in May.

Are predominantly foodie crowds more pressurised? ‘To be honest, weddings are the most stressful!’ she laughs. ‘It’s someone’s special day and you worry far more about things like equipment failing or getting a flat tyre on the way there.’

These days, Ronnie (a bright orange 1973 Citroen H-van) is towed (rather than driven) to events by the couple, and the dishes coming from within are ever-changing. While most trucks are defined by a particular cuisine, it’s a ‘smoky, slow and low’ cooking style that Stag identify themselves by. Everything from a venison Cubano sandwich to an Asian confit beef butty has left Ronnie’s hatch.

Does this adaptability prove handy when other vans might clash with their own offerings? ‘Events are pretty organised about who they book nowadays,’ Beth points out. ‘They avoid overlaps and the community is close as well. If we know of another vendor who does something similar, we’ll get in touch and make sure our dishes are different enough.’ Smoked chicken flatbread and slow-cooked boozy pork fries are current front-runners to be on the blackboard this summer.

The most significant street-food gathering of the year might be the Scottish Street Food Awards, hosted at The Pitt in Edinburgh from Friday 10–Sunday 12 June. With applications still open, the full list of finalists is to be confirmed, but the scale of this event is mighty and winners can go onto the British and then European awards.

One of the judges is food journalist (and former List scribe) Ailidh Forlan, who has noticed a genuine shift in the last two Scottish Street Food events. ‘There’s far less fried food, and more vendors are working with fresh local seafood and plant-based dishes.’ Indeed, last year’s champions were Antojitos (aka vegan chef John Kelly) whose Mexican plant-based offerings have since propelled the outfit to residencies at The Dog House (Edinburgh), Buck Street Market (Camden) and Nice’n’Sleazy (Glasgow).

His seitan barbacoa quesadilla was the dish that scooped the prize, and while the three residencies take up most of his time, you can still catch Antojitos at Glasgow’s Big Feed (Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 July), Edinburgh’s The Pitt (Friday 12–Sunday 14 August) and Perth’s Sustainably Vegan @ The Yard (Sunday 11 September).

The capital’s largest free-to-enter event, the Edinburgh Food Festival, also makes a welcome return this summer (Friday 22–Sunday 31 July). Alandas gelato and fish and chips, Jarvis Pickle’s multi-award winning pies, and Chick + Pea’s blue truck of panMediterranean delights will all be reassuring presences in Assembly George Square Gardens.