Fans think that Austin Butler was speaking about his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens when he credited a “friend” for encouraging him to play Elvis in The Hollywood Reporter’s "Actors Roundtable" published Tuesday (January 10th).
He told the outlet, “The month before I heard that Baz [Luhrmann] was making the movie, 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.'
Twitter users pointed out that Hudgens told a similar story on Live with Kelly and Ryan in 2019 when she said, "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.'"
One fan tweeted, "Vanessa hudgens and Austin butler dated for 10 years just for him to call her his friend IM SICK."
The couple dated from 2011 to 2020.