"As soon as you see even a silhouette of Elvis, it's his hair that stands out the most."
Out of all the characters, Butler's transformation into the King of Rock 'N Roll himself was the most demanding and took approximately four and a half hours to complete. Though every detail was taken into consideration, right down to the nails and the eyelashes, it was Elvis's iconic hairstyle that carried the most pressure.
"As soon as you see even a silhouette of Elvis, it's his hair that stands out the most," Thomas says. "The man lived with a comb in his pocket in the '50s — he was always combining his hair and getting at as high as he could."
Though Butler has had dark hair in real life since filming for "Elvis" began, it's not his real hair throughout. "We used his real hair for the early '50s and just coloured it," Thomas says. For the late '50s through the '70s, wigs were used to re-create Elvis's hairstyle. Luhrmann's one request: "Higher, get it higher, higher, higher."
Butler used six wigs in total for the various stages of the singer's life. They all had to be the perfect shade of black, too. "He dyed his own hair — he also dyed Priscilla's hair," Thomas says. "So you can imagine them dyeing each other's hair at Graceland, both black."
Still, even that wasn't enough. Another crucial piece to the puzzle was Elvis's sideburns. "[They] were a huge deal as well, because he's known for his sideburns, especially in the '70s when he was doing Vegas."