‘Elvis’ Cinematographer Breaks Down Austin Butler’s Dance Scenes

The set of Elvis was fairly the dance occasion. Cinematographer Mandy Walker revealed that filming Austin Butler’s dance scenes as Elvis Presley required simply as a lot dancing behind the digital camera.

“One in every of my largest challenges on this film was to bop with the digital camera with Elvis,” the 60-year-old director of images solely instructed Us Weekly on the 2023 Oscars pink carpet on the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 12. “And so from his very first workshop with Baz [Luhrmann], I used to be there with a digital camera angles on him, what seemed most like Elvis, but in addition, simply to have the ability to transfer with him and we each really feel comfy collectively. So, there was a choreography between once I had 5 cameras on stage with him and he felt comfy doing his strikes that we have been there with him and we have been transferring in live performance.”

Not solely was she dancing, however so was the remainder of her crew. “Oh my God, my guys — a few of my staff — have been standing off to the aspect working, wiggling their bottoms,” Walker hilariously added. “I liked it.”

Each Walker and Butler — whom she known as “a beneficiant collaborator” and “a sort particular person” — have been each up for Finest Cinematography and Finest Actor in a Main Function on the awards ceremony, respectively. Directed by Luhrmann, 60, the biopic scored a complete of eight Oscar nominations however did obtain any wins.

If Walker had received, she would have made historical past as the primary lady to win within the Finest Cinematographer class. She instructed Us that she was each “ready to win [and] ready to lose,” however that inspiring different ladies in her subject was what she was essentially the most enthusiastic about.

“It will simply be so encouraging to different ladies who’ve wished to pursue my profession and be enthusiastic about it and know that, that there’s potentialities,” she shared. “And in addition, there’s nonetheless solely seven % of cinematographers are ladies. So I need to encourage extra ladies to get into it.”

Whereas she continues to function an inspiration to ladies within the leisure business, Walker said that she is usually impressed by Luhrmann. “The most effective collaboration I’ve ever had is with Baz Luhrmann as a result of he’s a visionary and an ideal collaborator,” the Oscar nominee stated on the pink carpet. “To work on a staff with him may be very inspiring and rewarding.”

She additionally dished some behind-the-scenes info concerning the movie, together with that your entire film was filmed in her and Luhrmann’s native nation, Australia. “We additionally shot on stage. And we shot Graceland there and Beale Road, we created it, and recreated all of the live performance sequences in a stage,” she revealed to Us. “So, we by no means went to any theaters. We made them from scratch.”

When requested if there’s something followers can be shocked to find out about main man Butler, 31 — who misplaced out on the Finest Actor Oscar to The Whale star Brendan Fraser — Walker stated what you see is what you get.

“He’s only a very variety, beneficiant particular person and he works so laborious and I simply really feel like he was the right selection for this,” she stated of The Carrie Diaries alum, earlier than noting that she was rooting for him to win that night time.

Elvis wasn’t the one movie to not obtain any Oscars wins, as fellow Finest Image nominees Tár and The Banshees of Inisherin additionally ended the night time empty-handed.

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With reporting by Hannah Kahn