Austin would administer his mom’s IVs and manage her feeding tubes before her tragic death one month after his 23rd birthday.
When Austin Butler was promoting his hit movie Elvis back in 2022, he revealed that he felt particularly connected to music icon Elvis Presley after he learned that Elvis had also suffered the death of his beloved mom at 23 years old.
“When I learned about his mom — and then knowing that we were the exact same age — that just hit me,” Austin said at the time. “It was just one of those things where you know the stars are aligning, and that just became the most personal thing.”
Austin’s mom, Lori Butler, died in 2014 after being diagnosed with cancer, and the Oscar-nominated actor has spoken openly over the years about how losing her impacted him.
“After my mom passed away, I'd never experienced pain like that before,” he previously said during an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, adding that he started to wonder if his chosen career of acting was a “noble profession” when compared with the doctors and nurses who were trying to save his mom.
Just days after Lori’s funeral, Austin flew to New Zealand to film a TV series, and recalled that he would “go home and cry every night.” At this point, he considered quitting acting as he sank “into a deeper and deeper depression” for around eight months.
And in a new interview with Esquire, Austin made the rare decision to open up about supporting his mom through her illness, revealing that he was actually her primary caregiver during this time and would administer IVs as well as manage her feeding tubes with the guidance of a nurse who would come and go.
When he was growing up, Austin and Lori were incredibly close, with Austin calling her “a safe space.” As he got older, they spent a lot of quality time together as she homeschooled him.
And when Austin landed a role in Aliens in the Attic at 15, Lori relocated to New Zealand to be with her son, which strengthened their special bond.
Then, when Austin was just 22 years old, Lori was diagnosed with cancer. By this point, he already had an established acting career, and Austin did not hesitate to move his mom into his home so that he could look after her.
“I felt like I had to be a mountain,” he said of that period in his life, before reflecting on the fact that his mom never lost her kind spirit. “She would say, ‘Austin, on your way to the hospital today, go and pick up flowers for all of the nurses.’ What a beautiful lesson for me to have: How do you still think of others even when you’re hurting?”
Austin once again recalled flying to New Zealand to film The Shannara Chronicles almost immediately after his mom’s funeral, and while he was a professional on set and did his job, he admitted that he was in “turmoil” and would return to his hotel room and sob into his pillow at the end of each day.
“I needed time to metabolize some of those emotions,” he added, revealing that he then took an eight-month break from acting as he contemplated quitting the industry altogether.
After taking time away, Austin found a sense of direction and ended up being cast in the Broadway show The Iceman Cometh, where he won rave reviews.
His best friend, Ashley Tisdale, also spoke to Esquire as part of the profile, and she explained, “His mom would want him to keep going. I think that was a driving force.”
The Broadway role ended up being life changing for Austin, with his costar Denzel Washington so impressed by his talent and work ethic that, unbeknownst to Austin, he phoned Baz Luhrmann and recommended him for the role of Elvis in Baz’s upcoming biopic.
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Austin ended up securing the role through his own merit and became a household name following the movie’s release, which also led to his first Oscar nomination.
And as his career has progressed, Austin has kept his mom at the forefront of his mind and even honored her when he hosted Saturday Night Live back in 2022.
During his opening monologue, the star reflected on the way that he would “do anything” to make his mom laugh as a child, despite his “crippling shyness.” Austin explained, “Being silly with her is what broke me out of my shell and the core of what started me in acting.”
He then poignantly added that he could only imagine “how proud she'd be that her son, who used to not even be able to order food for myself at a restaurant, is now standing on this stage.”
Austin rounded off the monologue by dedicating his upcoming comedic performance to Lori, saying that every “silly voice” and “funny face” that he was about to do on the show was a tribute to her, emotionally concluding, “That’s for you, Mom.”
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