Austin Butler has thanked his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens for “believing” in him.
The 31-year-old dated the High School Musical actress, 34, from 2011 to 2020.
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actor credited Vanessa for encouraging him to play Elvis Presley in the Baz Luhrmann biopic.
Speaking about the person who inspired him to take on the role, the actor said: “I was with my partner at the time.”
When asked was he referring to Vanessa, Austin replied: “That’s right. We’d been together for so long and she had this sort of clairvoyant moment and so I really, I owe her a lot for believing in me.”
Initially, the Oscar-nominated actor referred to Vanessa as an unnamed “friend” who thought he was perfect for the role.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month, he said: “I was going to look at Christmas lights with a friend.
“And 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.'”
Austin said his “friend” called him a few weeks later to tell him he needed to “figure out how you can get the rights to a script” after she heard him perform on a piano.
Shortly afterwards, Austin’s agent called with news that an Elvis movie was in the works.
Vanessa spoke about the same incident on Live with Kelly and Ryan back in 2019.
She said at the time: “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 blonde, blonde and I was looking at him and he was singing along and I was like, ‘Babe, you need to play Elvis.'”
“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.'”
Austin, who is now dating model Kaia Gerber, has since won a Golden Globe for his performance in the biopic.
He has also been nominated for an Oscar.
Vanessa is now dating baseball player Cole Tucker.
