Austin Butler and Kaia Gerber have been dating almost a year now. And it’s not like they’ve kept it a secret but they seem to be much lower profile than she was when she was dating Jacob Elordi. Even more low profile since the release of Elvis and the kickoff of all the Oscar buzz he’s been getting for his performance.
Austin is still definitely in contention for a Best Actor Oscar nomination, even though his film was released before the films of most of all the other contenders whose movies were released during the Venice-TIFF-Telluride festival season. But Austin has been quiet, almost a no-presence on the campaign circuit. As I mentioned the other day in my post about the Best Actor candidates, this is in part due to the fact that he’s been on set and working but it’s also smart strategy: as the youngest actor in the field, he doesn’t want to come across too thirsty, he can’t be out here peacocking, he does not want to give that impression to the voters, many of whom are his peers and/or elders in the business. And he certainly doesn’t want his love life taking up any space during these critical weeks. Sometimes, as we’ve seen, personal life details can assist an Oscar campaign. Sometimes. Not necessarily for someone in Austin’s position though – an actor transitioning from teen and young adult roles into grown up parts. The gameplan seems to be that any chatter about Austin remains focused on his performance. So he’s the one in the car, discreetly waiting as Kaia picks up their order.
