Polly Bennett is the woman behind the transformations of Austin Butler, Rami Malek, and Naomi Ackie into three of the world’s greatest music icons, including Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, and Whitney Houston. She explains why a movement coach is so crucial before the Oscars.
This year’s BAFTA Awards saw Elvis star Austin Butler enter without his model girlfriend Kaia Gerber as his plus-one.
Instead, Butler attended the ceremony with Polly Bennett, the movement coach who spent months working with the star to help him metamorphose into The King.
When the camera panned to his seat after his name was announced as this year’s best actor award winner, he was embracing Bennett; on stage, she was his first thank you: “I could not have done this without you, and I love you so much.”
Bennett, a British movement director, and choreographer based in London is the go-to person for transformations when actors are tasked with portraying incredibly renowned real-life figures.
After working at the London 2012 Olympics and as an assistant choreographer for Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly on the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, she earned the position of movement coach for Rami Malek’s Academy Award-winning portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Taking on the royals for The Crown shortly followed, and this year she completed her “musical icon trilogy” with British actress Naomi Ackie’s metamorphosis into Whitney Houston in I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
Actors are accustomed to being scrutinized, criticized, and criticized because millions of people are observing their every move. But playing an icon, knowing that your performance will be compared to the revered original, is perhaps one of the most difficult positions in the industry.
Bennett tells, “I believe it’s a mammoth challenge due to the enduring popularity of Elvis Presley.” “People know him, people know the performances. So it didn’t slide past either of us that it was quite a significant deal.
Imagine a mosquito on the back of your calf.
Bennett’s intended six months working with Butler for the Baz Luhrmann production, which was filmed in Australia. Ended up turning into a year-and-a-half, on and off, in part due to breaks during the pandemic. Every day, they collaborated for several hours.
The Butler she met before the start of rehearsals was “a musical person”. He played the piano, had some experience with the guitar, and “was a sort of closet singer.” The infrastructure was there. They practiced tap and swing dancing to emulate Presley’s style and recited his lyrics as poetry.
Bennett demonstrates her techniques for bringing movements to life in a dance studio in the heart of London. It’s not merely “shake your hand”. But “reach out to show off your wedding ring” and shake “as if you’re taking off a glove”. For Elvis’s leg shake: “I want you to picture yourself with a tiny mosquito on the back of your patella. Therefore, it is emanating from your knee, not your hip.”
She claims that this is the origin of everything. “There are so many ‘isms’ that people believe [Elvis] embodies, and each one is founded on truth or comprehension of something. However, the more footage I viewed, the more research I conducted, the more books I read, and the more interviews I observed, I realized that his feet and knees move before his hips.”
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Butler, now 31, had to master different Presleys as he aged because Luhrmann’s Elvis follows the singer from his teenage years to his death at the age of 42. “Because the filming schedule was out of order, we had to keep him adaptable in that regard. On stage, he would wear a jumpsuit one day and a suit the next.”
Bennett also taught Butler about Presley’s legacy. “His mother used to tap dance, sway, and do the bop in their home. Elvis was raised by a mother who was quite animated and vivacious. It’s attempting to rewind and ask, “Where did he get this from?”. Rather than just looking at one piece of footage and saying, “That’s how he moves now.” This is significantly more beneficial for an actor than simply imitating.
“We are attempting to distinguish between imitation and embodiment. Austin, despite his efforts, is not a replica of Elvis. His arms are different lengths and his body is a different shape. So you have to try and find the essence of a person rather than try and do everything exact because everything exact truly doesn’t sit right in Austin’s body.”
‘I made Rami trek up and down Oxford Street with his mic’
Malek, who was not a natural mover, found working with Butler to be distinct. “We had to put in a lot of effort just to comprehend music, hearing beats in music, hearing accents, and being able to hear the half counts… at the time, he had never performed on stage himself. So, while Rami was training, I had him walk up and down Oxford Street with his microphone above his head to get him used to the notion of people looking at him and wanting to look at him.”
She claims that Mercury boxed as a child, which is reflected in his performances. “[I asked Rami] what do you observe about his theatrical performances that resemble that? And Rami said, “He raises his hand.” He’s not just doing it because it makes him feel good; he’s been working on it his entire life.”
Bennett says Ackie’s transformation into Houston was equally amazing, despite the film’s anonymity. They worked on her heritage as a gospel singer and also the fact she was a tomboy growing up, very different from the glamorous superstar people came to know.
“When she was young, she wore dungarees and played with her brothers. We talked a lot about Whitney, a male in a dress. Therefore, the notion that she was a young male who donned a dress suggests that she is acting feminine rather than being inherently feminine.”
Will Butler win the Oscar?
With a BAFTA and a Golden Globe already under his rhinestone belt, Butler could very well follow in Malek’s footsteps and deliver an acceptance speech at the Oscars (it appears to be a two-horse race between him and The Whale actor Brendan Fraser).
Bennett claims that she is pleased with what they have accomplished, regardless of the outcome. She laughs that no one has said, “He doesn’t look like Elvis” or “He doesn’t speak like Elvis.” It’s great that we could do that for fans, family, and storytellers.
Behind-the-scenes roles, such as hair and makeup artists, vocal trainers, and movement coaches, play a significant role in an actor portraying an actual person winning those awards.
Bennett agrees and chuckles. “I’m not attempting to brag about how great I am or how much I’ve accomplished. But I do enjoy the notion of people being recognized for their work. Because it’s not just folks watching YouTube late at night and thinking about how to play Elvis Presley.
“It was incredible to attend the BAFTAs with [Butler] as his guest because he acknowledged that people in my position. Choreographers and movement directors – do not have awards and are not part of that circuit.” She pauses and smiles sardonically. “Which is unfortunate.”
