Colin Farrell Unknowingly Asked Austin Butler for Vanessa Hudgens’ Number

• Colin Farrell unwittingly asked Austin Butler for his ex-girlfriend’s number during an interview.
• Butler recalled how a “friend” encouraged him to find a way to play Elvis Presley onscreen.
• That “friend,” it turns out, was Vanessa Hudgens, who recounted a similar story in 2019. 

Colin Farrell unwittingly asked Austin Butler for his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens’ phone number during a recent interview. 

While recounting how he landed the role of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” during a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Butler referenced a friend who initially encouraged him to find a way to play Presley in a film. 

“So I was looking at Christmas lights, there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio, and I was with a friend of mine, and I was singing along, and my friend kind of looked over at me and goes, ‘You’ve got to play Elvis,'” Butler said. “I said, ‘oh, that’s such a longshot.'”

Added Butler: “Then a couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano. I never really sang for any of my friends or anything. That same friend was there, and I was playing the piano. She said, ‘I’m serious. You’ve got to figure out how you can get the rights to a script.'”

Intrigued, Farrell interjected while Butler was speaking. 

“Who is this friend? I need their…” asked Farrell, making a phone gesture.

“Yeah, I’ll give you their number!” Butler answered.

Butler’s “friend,” in fact, was ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens, who offered a similar anecdote when she appeared on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” in 2019. 

“It’s so crazy because last December, we were driving along, and we were listening to Christmas music, and then an Elvis Presley Christmas song came on,” she said. “He had just dyed his hair dark — he’s a natural blonde — and I was looking at him and he was singing along and I was like, babe, you need to play Elvis,” she shared. “I don’t know how, but I’m serious. You need to play him.”

Added Hudgens: “Then in January, he was sitting at the piano — he’s a musician — and he’s playing, and he’s singing, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know how, but you need to figure out how you can play Elvis. Like, I don’t know how we get rights or what we do, but you need to play him.'”

The rest, of course, is history. Soon afterward, Butler’s agent told him Luhrmann was developing “Elvis,” and the actor spent five months auditioning before he won the highly-coveted part, beating out the likes of Harry Styles, Miles Teller, and Ansel Elgort. 

Since “Elvis” premiered in theaters in June 2022, Butler’s performance has earned him critical acclaim and a slew of awards, including the Golden Globe for best actor in a motion picture (drama), which the actor received on Tuesday evening. 

While Butler and Hudgens are no longer a couple, we know who he has to thank, at least partly, for the role of a lifetime.