Why Riley Keough Cried Watching Austin Butler in Elvis

Riley Keough couldn’t help falling in love with Austin Butler.

Though she never got to meet rock and roll legend Elvis Presley before his death in 1977, the 33-year-old actress exclusively told E! News that watching Butler’s portrayal of her late grandfather in the new biopic Elvis was “really emotional.”

“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “And I think the moment I saw him, I don’t want to be a spoiler alert, but there’s a moment in the first kind of five minutes that’s very powerful with Austin, and I kind of, you know, I started crying. It was really intense.”

The Zola star—who recently attended the film’s Graceland premiere alongside mother Lisa Marie Presley and grandmother Priscilla Presley—also applauded Butler’s dedication to the role, saying, “It’s not something that I think you see very often with young actors and it’s a wonderful film. Austin is incredible.”

Keough will soon follow in her grandfather’s musical footsteps, playing the titular, fictional rock star in Prime Video’s upcoming Daisy Jones & The Six series. In the meantime, fans can soon watch her in another Prime show, The Terminal List, which premieres July 1.