Miles Teller Lost Elvis To Austin Butler, But Not Being Cast In This $446 Million Movie Might Have Hurt More.

Miles Teller Lost Elvis To Austin Butler, But Not Being Cast In This $446 Million Movie Might Have Hurt More.
Actors Austin Butler and Miles Teller missed out on roles to each other in two of 2022’s biggest movies, a casting director revealed. Whilst Austin Butler earned praise and an Oscar nomination for playing the lead in Elvis, the role of the iconic singer almost went to Whiplash star Miles Teller.

In an interview with Variety, casting director Denise Chamian explained that she first noticed Butler’s talent in 2013 when he auditioned for a part in The Maze Runner, but decided he wasn’t quite right for the role because he was too young. She also explained how close Butler was to playing Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick, a role which went to Miles Teller.

Miles Teller was one of the director Baz Luhrmann’s first choices for playing Elvis, alongside Harry Styles, but Chamian put forward Butler, who ended up getting the role.

She explained to the publication how much she liked Butler as an actor. “The thing that he got the closest to was Top Gun. When I cast that, we were looking for the role that Miles Teller played. I felt so passionate about Austin. Ultimately, his audition was shown to Tom and all the filmmakers.”

“They agreed he had something, and they were happy to know him, but they thought he was too young. At that point, I saw that this actor has something very special that other people don’t always have. It’s almost the way he looks into the camera. He knows the camera and lets the camera see him, and that is really what is so captivating.”

In Whiplash, Miles Teller plays a promising young drummer who joins a cut-throat music college which pushes him to his limits in order to help him unlock his potential. He becomes an understudy to the volatile Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons) and starts to play alongside his studio band at jazz competitions.

Both his big break, Teller studied Fine Arts in New York and started acting professionally in the mid-2000s. Teller started his career in short movies but has gone on to star in multiple feature films as well as the occasional TV series.

Despite its huge success and award nominations, Teller only received $8,000 for his leading role in the movie. Teller’s debut feature film was Rabbit Hole in 2010, alongside Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. Teller told Esquire that he received a $5,000 paycheck for the film. One of his big breaks came when he co-starred in The Spectacular Now with Shailene Woodley, which led him to being recognized by Hollywood.