“Elvis” actor Austin Butler says it’s “bittersweet” to celebrate the film’s success without Lisa Marie Presley, who died Jan. 12 at age 54.
Butler felt an immediate connection with Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, he said on NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“I first met Lisa when we screened the film at Graceland, and I’ve never had an experience where I met somebody and felt an immediate depth of relationship to them,” Butler said Monday.
“She was a person who didn’t really have anything to prove and wouldn’t open up to everybody, and she just opened up to me. We got so close, so fast.”
Presley died two days after she attended the Golden Globe Awards and watched Butler win best actor in a drama film for his portrayal of her father.
A cause of death is being investigated for Presley, who was laid to rest Jan. 22 at her father’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee. Butler reportedly attended the public memorial, as did “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann.
Luhrmann told the Daily News last year he’ll “cherish” Lisa Marie’s reaction to the biopic.
“She knew her father’s vibe, but it’s one thing to grow up not knowing your father and having lost him,” Luhrmann said in June. “It’s another thing that one half of the world thinks he’s a god, and the other half thinks he’s a Halloween costume and a joke. It came home to me how difficult that’s been for her, and then somewhat the lifting of that burden has really come home for me, too.”
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