ELVIS (2022) Behind-the-Scenes Just a Boy from Tupelo

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] we're just saying gospel when we heard in church [Applause] he like that he would go up there yeah they're singing and jump around he'd do it too and we're just watch him we we thought we was too cool for that until he started doing it it thought that one got to religion that's what they thought [Applause] it's almost an unbelievable story born of nothing of dust the things that happened in such a short lifetime are almost unimaginable one minute he is a truck driver and the next minute he's the most talked about most provocative most famous young man in the world and he's a millionaire overnight there was no precedent it's not just lightning in a bottle that's a comet smashing into the planet Earth [Music] Fallout from that there's a catalyst for so much and it becomes an icon of such magnitude that there isn't a corner of the earth that he hasn't actually touched [Music] the story is a big American story and baz knows how to do that well and it also is a musical story and baz really knows how to do that well back I've always had a profound fascination with the American pop culture and if you want to explore the 50s 60s and 70s you could not get a better life to use as a canvas than the life of Elvis Presley he was at the center of all of it I'm fascinated by the rubber house he was this linchpin in society that shifted things he shifted music he shifted culture he shifted fashion to the young he electrifies them and he becomes their voice and it's a voice of rebellion I've heard him being referred to as the maximalist filmmaker baz Lerman I consider music the script and the visual language all as one for a story and a man as big as Elvis Presley I think it's the only way to do it he has the film in his head but he's always enhancing those ideas I have absolutely no question in my mind what I want things to look like but there's a big difference between what I see how you reveal it and create it and execute it and that takes an army of artists that's works so differently in the best possible way he has a sort of intense interest in every element in every Department Catherine Martin she can take my terrible scribbles and collages and executes it at a level which is really genius he trusts the artist that he's cast he trusts the people in the room his confidence and it's just like just do it commit have a good time you can't do anything wrong they're trusting us is so precious we owe to those actors to surround them in a world where we keep fear at Bay he's really brilliant at cultivating these experiences that then go and feed the work so much there is a method to Bowser's Madness at first I thought if you're going to drive us insane [Music] and then I realized that yes he is and it's going to be a wonderful trip I owe him a lot for throwing me in the deep end we all know the icon of Elvis it's very hard to live up to an image I got a call from my agent that said pass alarm is making an Elvis film my friend said you gotta play Alice I ended up filming myself singing Unchained Melody here I was just in my bathroom and filmed it in my living room and I sent that off and then I got a call guys wanted to meet me Austin went on an extraordinary three-year journey to discover the human being I learned about Elvis's mother and the fact that she passed away when he was 23. which was the exact same age I was and I lost my mom even if you have the most famous person in the world that grief is universal portraying somebody who is so iconic it's really hard not to feel like a little kid in your dad's suit the Austin being such an obsessive unbelievable work ethic just relentlessly living breathing learning Elvis well that's all right Mom that's all right for you all the live performance young girls Austin's things himself and then a lot of stuff is a blend between Austin's voice and real Elvis we went to Nashville and Memphis and we recorded an RCA where Elvis recorded it was my first time ever in a recording studio and uh I was so nervous moments like that pushed me so far outside my comfort zone that it was a feeling of okay we're gonna have to push through those moments because that's what elves were fun music is so much about authenticity in our souls what Austin did was to reveal the humanity and the spirituality of the man Austin spent so much time working on his voice working on his performance the movement side of things I had heard about Polly Bennett what we see of him when he's 19 versus how his body changes gradually through performance and experience that was a really key narrative thing that we had to develop in rehearsal we did so many things I mean we did tap dancing swing dancing these things that seemed like they weren't for Elvis but those movements they all play into it the feeling of spontaneity is what's happening right now for the first time but yet the movements are identical thankfully I had so much time so by the time that I was out there I wasn't having to think about any of that it just felt like I was able to look out of his eyes [Music] you could not take your eyes off of Austin Butler it was Austin no it was Elvis that's all you could say that's Elvis I felt such a weight to do him Justice and to honor his family Elvis born at a time the segregation in the South living in East Tupelo in the black community in one of the few white houses the poorest of the poor in this very small town he didn't have running water they didn't have a bathroom inside Elvis became part of this sort of little group of three to four black boys who would hang out he's being exposed at the same time to the sacred and the profane the blues and also to Pentecostal music Spiritual music and this is mixed with his love of country music it's a beautiful thing this American Melting Pot where people of all cultures crashed together and create something new and rock and roll music is born of that and Memphis is the hot spot for it and Elvis is at the center of all this top of the morning to your friends from the home a colorful old Bill Street the place where the blues began in Memphis Tennessee Community bill was not simply a musical experience it was also a cultural experience it was a medley of ethnic groups I loved the scenes that we filmed in Beale Street it was just so alive we built the sets of Beale Street right here in Australia there's like six city blocks of the most detailed Street vendors and stores and it was just incredible Each decade had a color palette for Beale Street it's the young Elvis before he became famous it's darker it's grittier colors classic greens and blues and earthy colors we're able to orchestrate this incredible sort of busy bustling City you can get a sense of this is the real deal you know this is what Memphis was like you [Music] really does understand how much storytelling can be done using music jazz is deeply involved in ideas about how to recreate and ReDiscover the music of that period and to put it out there in a way as if people never heard it before he's always looking for something real saw authenticity in what we were doing this music you can't fake you got these kind of singers in the room something's gonna happen the phenomena that is Elvis Presley is is truly truly hard for us to comprehend he says this young and 19 year old kid Buddy Holly when he first saw Elvis walk on the stage said I cannot overstate how strange he seemed [Music] he was both incredibly masculine and feminine at the same time America Ferry Elvis talked so much about his own fear as on stage fright filled with Terror to go out there and perform in front of a lot of people well you may go to college you may go to school you may have been Cadillac but don't you pick nobody's room now but that's one of the main reasons why he started moving in the first place was because you saw this energy [Music] that's what he was the atomic performance how bad this animalistic fire please Lord don't let him hurt my baby him looks like they want to [Music] there would have been no Elvis without Colonel Tom Parker and there would have been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis are you ready to fly yes I'm ready ready to fly the colonel and Elvis not even they could imagine just how successful he could be Graceland very much the symbol of his success we want to build Graceland in the middle of the Aussie Bush there's Graceland the proportions and all the architectural details are based on blueprints that we were very lucky to access from the estate you walk in through this door and you feel like you're right in the real life Graceland so from the get-go we're copying a lot of reality you go for the reality go for the truth but what you're also trying to win this set is a feeling trying to understand what it really felt like to be there the bedroom is pretty surreal because it's a space that very few people in real life have ever been in it's velvet and satin and gold and it was about him putting himself in this bedroom and closing it off see the sets and how much they feel like the real thing makes you feel alive in every space this new rock and roll thing who the hell is that it was seen as something deeply threatened the obscenity and vote charity of this rock and roll music the way you sing and move it's god-given so there can't be nothing wrong with it hard to imagine just How Deep The Fear was of white kids embracing black music and vice versa the 50s were not this passive time 50s were Rife with struggle a few weeks before Elvis Presley walks into Sun Studios the segregation laws are struck down the political turmoil that was happening it was dangerous to do what Elvis was doing some of the young people are very excited about this next day there's a lot of people saying a lot of things don't sell much as wiggle the finger of course you got to listen to the people that you love then you got to listen to yourself it's like when Mal and Brando and the wild one is asked what are you rebelling against he says what are you God you're looking for trouble we came to the right place you're looking for trouble look right in my face I was born sitting up and talking back but if you're gonna start so an audience today it's impossible to realize just how terrifying Elvis was to the older generation [Music] [Applause] Elvis is just so aggressive and the guitars are blaring and he's rolling around on stage [Applause] at moments it feels like the birth of punk rock [Music] Colonel Parker we've called you in here to talk about this act of yours some people want to put me in jail because the way I was moving they're not going to put you in jail they might put me in jail for walking across the street but you a famous white boy you put an end to your boy's animal behavior or we will from the Colonel's point of view this association with rock and roll and juvenile delinquency sexuality Black Culture was a fad prove to the world that you are a clean-cut All-American boy and we put this whole unfortunately step behind us Elvis would go off serve in the Army he would be just a regular Joe isolated alone is when he's in the army that he meets Priscilla Colonel's promised me that when I get back he's going to set me up in Hollywood to be a serious actor really what I dream of I think if you dream that you'll do it you know yeah when Elvis returns in the early 60s it's the pop period it goes away from being rock and roll and Elvis goes into the movies they're all fun and colorful they own Hollywood anything they made turned into a river of gold and the colonel makes him the highest paid actor in Hollywood [Music] that the world is changing we have America being torn apart at the very fabric we have Vietnam he wakes up one day and he's lost now this place is wonderful world of Christmas oh you can think about is how many goddamn sweaters I can sell I am the promoter that is what I do I need you fellas to help me get back to who I really am how are you Elvis I sure as hell ain't somebody who sings Christmas songs by a fireplace for an hour it's one of the most iconic moments in Rock and Roll History I felt so much pressure and fear that goes along with that this feeling of if it didn't go well that my career could be over I I thought that's exactly what Elvis [Music] and where that black leather was really powerful it's been a long time so much of of my work and the help being influenced by what I was wearing [Music] costumes are part of helping an actor and a director create character [Music] man walk differently breathe differently that makes you truly feel different there were just so many iconic style moments so it was very important to hit those particular markers [Music] we have studied all the references to the nth degree [Music] had such a remarkable Style if you look at any pop star today or any rock star today and you think they wouldn't be that way without us got everybody this nation is hurting it needs a voice right now to help it heal it has nothing to do with us it has everything to do with us you have to make a statement EP we have to say something we could do a song and together they stay up all night and they create that now iconic song If I Could dream everyone once told me foreign things are too dangerous to say sing [Music] he brought this incredible truth to it there must be light Burning Bright somewhere we all have something to wail about got to be birds flying higher in a sky we all have something to sing about from our soul it wasn't just about making music it was about singing something that needed to be sung when he opens his mouth and he sings you feel you know him you feel your understanding [Music] and that's just a very particular gift [Music] [Applause] s I [Applause] [Music] think I always admired the way that he brought meaning to songs the way he phrased lyrics Elvis picked a song man he picked it because there was something deep deep inside [Music] [Applause] [Music] the film is really about America it's about these two great things it's a great cell and then the Soul I have the most challenging sequence for me which was also one of the most exciting was the international showroom it's flashy and you know lots of lights and bright oranges and reds and yellows get lost in a place like this oh the international stage man that was such a massive thing the biggest in Las Vegas we had five cameras going we had two technocranes that sits there with all the monitors on he's talking to everybody he's like a conductor [Music] been experimenting with a new big sound I'll bring that face up there in a room this size keep playing you forgive them The Greatest Show on Earth Elvis was an incredible artists a genius that comes along only once in a couple of generations [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when he was at his most magical and most pure and most wonderful most Elvis was when he was interpreting the song [Applause] without a doubt Elvis made Vegas the Showplace that it is actually on the stage and you're looking down at the lights in the audience and everything and those gold curtains the way they came down and there's these certain moments where it transcends the feeling of making a film thank you very much if this is an exploration of America in the 50s and the 60s and 70s the 50s is so rebellious and so full of energy useful energy by the time we get to the 70s the American dream is unraveling the American innocence is finally finally falling away I'm so tired of playing Elvis Presley [Music] Elvis doesn't have anyone around him who can truly rescue him from this invisible cobweb the only thing doesn't matter he said that man gets up on that stage tonight so that all that is left in the end is Elvis and the audience and that is the only thing that I was listen for and in between he's the loneliest man in the world [Applause] oh my love every time I watch that performance makes tears to my eyes [Music] [Music] see Charming young Elvis you see the little boy in him shining through [Music] goes by so slowly it's just heartbreaking time can do so much and then when he sings [Music] this is great moment when Elvis is playing and suddenly he looks at the audience and he smiles like a little boy and it's a bit like am I good am I good and you're into like yeah you're good true foreign [Laughter] I read comic books and I was the hero of the comic book I Saw movies and I was the hero in the movie so every dream that I ever dreamed has come true 100 times Elvis only lived 42 years but when you look at his life it feels like he lived a hundred or more there was a magnificent artist there it's not just another rock star the things that happened in such a short lifetime are almost unimaginable Elvis Presley had a mythical life [Music] [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: FilmIsNow Movie Bloopers & Extras

Views: 68,763

Keywords: Elvis, Just a Boy from Tupelo, Elvis Featurette, Elvis Just a Boy from Tupelo, movie extra, making of Documentary, making of featurette, movie featurette, Elvis 2022, biography movie, Austin Butler, Tom Hanks, Dacre Montgomery, Luke Bracey, Olivia DeJonge, David Wenham, based on real people, elvis presley, rock and roll, based on true story, FilmIsNow Extra

Id: 5IIQ7ban-Bw

Length: 26min 38sec (1598 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 06 2023