Austin Butler is recalling the trip to an emergency room that he made immediately after filming Elvis.
While he told PEOPLE’s Janine Rubenstein and Jeremy Parsons Sunday during the PEOPLE & Entertainment Weekly Red Carpet Live SAG Awards 2023 preshow that playing the late King of Rock ‘n Roll was “the greatest ride of my life,” it also presented some health challenges.
For example, the 31-year-old actor lost his voice at one point while performing vocals for the Baz Luhrmann-directed drama, and previously revealed that he was hospitalized and bedridden for a week with a virus that simulates appendicitis.
Before hopping on to another project, “I had a week of downtime, where I actually ended up in the hospital,” Butler said on Sunday at the SAG Awards. “I didn’t get sick the entire time I filmed [Elvis] but the day I finished, I ended up in the emergency room.”
“So I spent a week in bed and then I went to this other job,” he added.
In a May 2022 interview with British GQ, Butler opened up about waking up “at 4 in the morning with excruciating pain” and being “rushed to hospital.”
“My body just started shutting down the day after I finished Elvis,” he continued.
Speaking about losing his voice during filming, Butler told Rubenstein and Parsons on Sunday that it happened when he was performing Elvis Presley‘s version of “Never Been to Spain.”
“We did so many takes. And at a certain point, I just lost my voice,” the actor explained. “So then I went on vocal rest for a couple days, and I was able to come back.”
Butler has been open about his commitment to the role of Presley in Elvis, saying in a Variety Actors on Actors conversation published in December 2022 that he did not see his family for “about three years”while he got into character as the music legend.
His attendance at the SAG Awards comes weeks after he took home the best actor in a drama for his performance as Presley at last month’s Golden Globe Awards, and just a week after he won best actorat the BAFTA Awards on Feb. 19.
“I owe this to a bold, visionary filmmaker who allowed me the experience to take risks and I always knew I would be supported,” Butler said during his speech at the Globes, praising his director. “Baz Luhrmann, I love you. Thank you for believing in me in those moments that I didn’t even believe in myself.”
“I also want to thank my dance partner, the greatest dance partner I could have ever hoped for Mr. Tom Hanks, thank you,” the actor added of his costar.
After shouting out Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley — the latter of whom died days later at the age of 54 — Butler concluded his speech by acknowledging the King himself: “Lastly, Elvis Presley, himself, you were an icon and a rebel. And I love you so much.”
The 2023 SAG Awards ceremony is airing live on Sunday at 8 p.m. from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, on Netflix’s YouTube channel.
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