Austin Butler wins Golden Globe for Elvis and he still sounds like the King

We promise it's not just our suspicious minds — Austin Butler genuinely does still sound like Elvis Presley.

On Tuesday night, Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, Motion Picture for his portrayal of the king of rock'n'roll in Baz Luhrmann's eponymous film. As Butler, a California native, took the stage to give his acceptance speech, his voice still sounded an awful lot like Elvis.

From the start of the Elvis press tour at the Cannes film festival last summer, fans pointed out how much Butler's voice resembled that of Elvis Presley, a contrast from his cadence as a younger actor on shows like The Carrie Diaries and Switched at Birth.

It came up in the red carpet pre-show on E! with Butler demurring, insisting he couldn't hear it. But the Tupelo twang was definitely there in his speech where he thanked everyone from director Baz Luhrmann to his costar Tom Hanks to his own late "mama" to Elvis himself.

Butler did address the voice in the press room after his win, saying, "I don't think I sound like him still, but I guess I must because I hear it a lot. I often liken it to when somebody lives in another country for a long time. I had three years where that was my only focus, so I'm sure there's pieces of him in my DNA and I will always be linked to him."

It seems the inevitable result of Butler immersing himself in the sounds and world of Presley. He previously said he didn't talk to his family for three years while he was preparing and playing Elvis. One of Presley's most distinctive traits was his voice, and Butler worked hard to ensure his take on it was more than a mere impression.

"I'd hear him say a certain word and I would clip just that bit out so I knew how he said that word," the actor previously told EW of the minutiae of his process. "I created my own archive of how he said every word and every diphthong, and the way that he used musicality in his voice."

"I would take an interview or a speech that he had on stage where he is talking to the audience, and I would practice it as though I was trying to get it to be exact," he said. "That way, I couldn't hear a difference between my voice and his. Then I would have my dialect coach there going, 'This is off a little bit,' and I'd practice. I'd just keep honing it in until I could get as specific as possible."

It seems he's got so good at not hearing a difference in their voices, he barely notices any more.

But if he keeps racking up awards victories this season, that link between him and the King will become even stronger, so our advice to those who are phased by the voice is this: don't be cruel.

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• Austin Butler didn't see his family for three years while dedicating himself to 'Elvis'