Exclusive: Tom Hanks Talks Elvis, playing Col. Tom Parker, working with Austin Butler, & calling Leo DiCaprio about Baz Luhrmann
Now playing in theaters is the highly anticipated, epic, big-screen spectacle Elvis from Warner Bros. Pictures and visionary, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Baz Luhrmann that explores the life and music of Elvis Presley, starring Austin Butler and Oscar winner Tom Hanks.
Starring alongside Butler and Hanks, award-winning theatre actress Helen Thomson plays Elvis’s mother, Gladys, Richard Roxburgh portrays Elvis’s father, Vernon, and Olivia DeJonge plays Priscilla. Luke Bracey plays Jerry Schilling, Natasha Bassett plays Dixie Locke, David Wenham plays Hank Snow, Kelvin Harrison Jr. plays B.B. King, Xavier Samuel plays Scotty Moore, and Kodi Smit-McPhee plays Jimmie Rodgers Snow.
A thoroughly cinematic drama, Elvis’s (Butler) story is seen through the prism of his complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks). As told by Parker, the film delves into the complex dynamic between the two spanning over 20 years, from Presley’s rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. Central to that journey is one of the significant and influential people in Elvis’s life, Priscilla Presley (Olivia DeJonge).
For Hanks, who’s played real-life individuals in the past from Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, to Captain Richard Phillips in Captain Phillips, to Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, to James B. Donovan in Bridge of Spies, to Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger in Sully, and Ben Bradlee in The Post, playing Colonel Tom Parker came at the worst time in the worst. Hanks was among the first notable celebrities to get COVID at the height of the epidemic. The news shocked the world as Hanks is well loved all over and thankfully, he and his Rita Wilson were able to get better and he completed the film.
In speaking with Blackfilmandtv.com’s Wilson Morales talks about playing Parker, working with Austin Butler and calling Leonardo DiCaprio prior to shooting the film so he can get a sense on how Baz Luhrmann works. Baz had directed Leo in The Great Gatsby.