Austin Butler Pays Tribute to Lisa Marie Presley Following BAFTA Win

“Elvis” star Austin Butler has paid tribute to Lisa Marie Presley following his BAFTA win for Best Actor on Sunday evening.

“It’s been a really unimaginably tragic time, you know, and grief is a long process,” Butler said in the winners’ press room following his win. “And so my heart and my love was with [the Presley family] always. I feel honoured to have been welcomed into the family. It’s a bittersweet time.”

Butler also expressed how lucky he felt to portray the legendary singer, a thought that often crossed his mind while he was making the film. “How lucky I was to get to have that experience,” he said. “The feeling of standing on an international stage and looking out and looking down at the jumpsuit that I was wearing and realizing there were certain moments where I was seeing the closest thing to what Elvis would have seen during his ’68 Special or whatever that was and I miss it a lot. I miss that experience.”

“I don’t miss the terror,” he added. But I felt every day that the elation that you feel with that. And I miss the people that I got to make the film with, they became completely like family to me. I really miss them a lot.”

When asked what he projects had coming up next, Butler cited Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part 2” and “The Bikeriders,” in which he stars alongside Tom Hardy.

“But right now I’m unemployed,” he said. “Which is exciting because it means that I get to go on vacation after March.”

Butler is also nominated for an Academy Award, with the ceremony set to take place on March 12.