Photo: Ashley Lucas/instagram, Suzan Moore/PA Images via Getty
Austin Butlerhas a lot of love for his family.
Born in Anaheim, California, the actor is the son of David and Lori Anne Butler. Though his parents “divorced amicably” when Butler was seven, they continued to co-parent him andhis sister Ashley, with the actor tellingVoguethatthey “moved fluidly” between their respective housesthroughout their childhood.
Lori Anne died in 2014 from cancer, and Butler speaks of her often, including whilehostingSaturday Night Livein December 2022.
Here’s everything to know about Butler’s parents, including what he has said about them over the years.
His parents wrote his IMDb biography
On Butler’s IMDb page, a mini-bio written in 2007 and attributed to “David and Lori Butler (proud parents)” raves about the actor’s early career. In it, the Butlers write, Austin landed “a rather permanent background-acting gig” on the Nickelodeon seriesNed’s Declassified School Survival Guidein 2004, and “from that point on, he considered himself to be a serious actor.”
Then his “first speaking role was inZoey 101(2005), as ‘Dannifer’ or ‘Wrong Danny’ (a few lines, and a girl poured soda down his shirt).” They joked that while " he got a “meatier role onHannah Montanain 2007” it was “still a small part, but very fun.”
His mom would often take Austin and his sister to Disneyland when they were kids
Austin Butler Instagram
Per hisVoguefeature in April 2022, Butler’s parents, David, a commercial real estate appraiser, and Lori, who ran a daycare at home,didn’t “didn’t have much money” when he was growing up. However, due to their close proximity to Disneyland, his mother would splurge on season passes for Butler and his sister when they were kids, occasionally pulling them out of school to go “just because.”
He used to eat lunch with his mom every day in elementary school
DuringhisHot Onesinterview with host Sean Evans, Butler recalled howPB&Js hold a sentimental meaning for himas he used to eat them all the time with his mother growing up.
“I was the only kid in elementary school who got this letter that allowed me to … walk home and eat lunch with my mom and she’d have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for me,” he recalled. “So I have very fond memories of grape jam because of that.”
He dedicated hisSaturday Night Livemonologue to his mom
WhilehostingSNLfor the first timein December 2022, Butler took a moment to pay tribute to his late mother, recalling how they used to watch the show together growing up.
“Some of my favorite memories from growing up are watchingSNLwith her, and we’d watch every week,” Butler shared during the show’s opening monologue. “And even though I had this crippling shyness, when I was with her, I’d just do anything to make my mom laugh.”
“I do ridiculous faces and voices, I did this ridiculous Gollum impression. Being silly with her is what broke me out of my shell and the core of what started me in acting,” he continued. “My mom is no longer with us, but I’ve been thinking about her a lot this week, just imagining how proud she’d be [that] her son, who used to not be able to order food for myself at a restaurant, is now standing on this stage.”
He almost quit acting after his mother’s death
DuringThe Hollywood Reporter’s recentActor Roundtable discussion, theElvisactor opened up about the death of his mom, noting how it almost made him retire from acting.
“I’d never experienced pain like that before, and I started to question,” he said. “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?’ "
Butler recalled, “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.'”
At that point, Butler said he decided to take some time off, but he eventually “started sinking into a deeper and deeper depression.”
He continued, “It was about six or eight months of that. Then my agent called and said, ‘You’ve got to put yourself on tape forThe Iceman Cometh. Denzel [Washington]’s doing it on Broadway.’ "
Though he thought “there’s no way that they’ll cast me, they’ll rip me to shreds, I don’t deserve to be here,” Butler landed the part. “And that’s the moment that changed my career.”
His mother inspired hisElvisaudition
After first recording himself singing “Love Me Tender,” he told the publication he had a nightmare that his mother “was alive again, but dying.”
“It felt so fresh and painful,” he told the publication. “I’d been watching all these documentaries and learned a couple days prior that Elvis’s mom had passed away when he was 23, the same as me. I thought he probably had nights where he woke up from nightmares like this. So what can I do with that?”
He decided to rerecord his audition, this time singing “Unchained Melody.”
“I’d been practicing ‘Unchained Melody’ for a while, but I’d always been singing it to a lover. That night, I sang it to my mom,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to look and sound like Elvis. I wasn’t trying to do anything but take that emotion and pour it into the song.”
Voguenoted that the audition tape “floored” Luhrmann, who was initiallyconsidering other names for the role. “What I heard vocally, and more importantly, what I saw emotionally, was something that simply couldn’t be ignored,” Luhrmann told the publication.
“From the moment I met Austin, he was carrying something of Elvis with him. He had a hint of the swagger, a touch of the sound.”
He has a tattoo in honor of his mother
During an interview withThe New York Timesin May 2022, Butler opened up about his late mother andthe piece of ink he has in honor of her memory: a number 27 on his wrist. “She was my best friend. She called 27 her God number,” he told the publication. “Whenever she saw it, she felt that God was looking out for her.”
source: people.com
