Austin Butler made fun of himself and drew laughs for his “Lord of the Rings” impression for his “Saturday Night Live” hosting debut, but he also touched hearts with a tearful tribute to his late mother.
During his opening monologue on the NBC sketch show’s Christmas episode Saturday, the Golden Globe-nominated “Elvis” star mocked his “deeper, more Elvis-y voice” – an interview clip from 10 years ago was revved-up to high-pitched chipmunk tones – as well as his child stardom on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows.
“I was really into intense immersive acting,” Butler, 31, joked. “Like Robert De Niro in “Raging Bull,” Butler was into intense immersive acting. “‘I didn’t screw your wife!’ I’d say on set. ‘Put down the knife,’ they’d say. You’re terrifying iCarly.”
Butler recalled being homeschooled as a child (“I was also weird,” he joked) and going to Disneyland with his sister when they were kids in Anaheim, Calif. “”And then, after the ninth time, we were like, ‘I don’t think she knows how to teach.'”
He performed a spot-on Gollum impression for his mother, with whom he watched “SNL” weekly as a child despite his “crippling shyness,” and explained that “being silly with her is what broke me out of my shell” and got him into acting.
Butler then sobbed as he said, “Mom is no longer with us.” He also mentioned how proud she’d be that her son, “who used to be unable to order for myself at a restaurant, is now standing on this stage,” to rapturous applause from the audience.
In 2014, the actor’s mother died of cancer.
“So if you see me making a silly voice or a funny face, it’s for you, Mom.”
Butler had a lot of fun on “SNL”: in a sketch that alluded to his recent role as the King of Rock and Roll, Sarah Sherman played Jewish Elvis, with Butler as an old grandmother who is so hot and bothered that she throws her underwear at him.
