The 'Elvis' star caught backlash after referring to his longtime ex-girlfriend as a friend.
Austin Butler knows he made a little misstep while telling the story of his ex, Vanessa Hudgens, inspiring him to take the role of Elvis Presley.
During promotion for the Baz Luhrmann biopic about the King of Rock and Roll, Butler and Hudgens told two versions of the story. In her 2019 re-telling of the story, Hudgens called him her 'boyfriend.' In 2023, Butler recalled the same events, but referred to Hudgens as 'a friend of mine.'
"Oh, yeah, I learned a lesson with that one," Butler says as he laughed during an interview with Esquire magazine. "I felt that I was respecting her privacy in a way and not wanting to bring up a ton of things that would cause her to have to talk. I have so much love and care for her. It was in no way trying to erase anything."
Butler, 32, and Hudgens, 35, dated from 2011 until their split in 2020. For his part, the Masters of the Air star said that he valued their privacy during their "real" romance.
"I value my own privacy so much," he says. "I didn't want to give up anybody else's privacy."
In 2019, Hudgens told the story of how she and Butler were driving around listening to Christmas music, when an Elvis Christmas song played and she recalled telling him, 'Babe, you need to play Elvis. I don't know how, but I'm serious. You need to play him.'"
A year later, Butler -- who went on to play Elvis in Luhrmann's 2022 film -- told the same story, but explained it in a very different way.
"I was with a friend of mine and I was singing along and my friend kind of looked over at me and goes, 'You've got to play Elvis.' I said, 'That's such a long shot,'" he recalled during the Hollywood Reporter's Actors Round Table.
Following the Dune 2 stars re-telling of the events, he faced swift backlash from social media users, who believed he downplayed Hudgens' role.
In the years since ending their relationship, the pair has each moved on. In December, Hudgens married baseball star Cole Tucker.
Butler has been linked to Kaia Gerber since December 2021. During the course of their relationship, though the couple has posed together on red carpets, they still try to keep things to themselves.
When asked about his personal life, Butler simply tells Esquire, "I'm happy." The Carrie Diaries star does see the interest in his personal life, as he admits he wants to know about one of his favorite stars.
"Yeah, because I want to know about other people," he says. "I want to know about Daniel Day-Lewis' life."
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