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Actor Austin Butler initially didn’t think he had anything in common with legendary crooner Elvis Presley.

But after deep-diving into the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s personal life, the 30-year-old actor discovered a heartbreaking detail that ultimately connected him to the role in the upcoming biopic.

Appearing on Today with Hoda and Jenna on Thursday, Butler revealed he struggled to tap into the character at first.

“When you first look at Elvis, he feels so much larger than life and you look at him like a God-like figure or a caricature of Elvis, and I fell into that the first month when I was trying to work on it,” Butler said.

It wasn’t until he learned that he and the “Hound Dog” hitmaker both lost their mothers when they were 23, that he was able to fully connect and understand the crooner’s mindset.

“When I learned about his mom — and then knowing that we were the exact same age — that just hit me,” he explained. “It was just one of those things where you know the stars are aligning and that just became the most personal thing.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Pkf4oMRHT7E%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Butler tragically lost his mother, Lori Butler, in 2014 after she lost her battle with cancer, he revealed to Vogue in April.

Elvis lost his mother, Gladys Presley, in 1958 when she died from a heart attack.

Earlier this month, the film’s director Baz Luhrmann said Butler was simply “born to play” the role.

“You know, we can talk about it now, he like loses his mom at the same age that Elvis did,” Luhrmann said of Butler.

Butler admitted he shut himself off from the rest of the world in a desperate bid to surrender himself to the role.

“I basically put the rest of my life on pause for two years,” Butler said at the Cannes Film Festival last month where the film premiered. “I just absorbed everything that I possibly could.”

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