Butler's day would start in the hair and makeup chair with Thomas and three other members of the hair and makeup team. First, they'd apply facial prosthetics. "We did fewer prosthetics on his face for when he was younger to just keep him fresher and a bit more round-faced," he says. "As he got older, he sort of was a little more chiseled."
To fake this progression of time, Butler started out with a prosthetic chin and cheekbones to play Elvis in the '50s. Then, for the '60s, Butler wore chin and jaw prosthetics. "We added jaw prosthetics when he got older to harden his jawline a little bit and make it more pronounced," Thomas says.
The most drastic change comes when they jump to 1977. "The 'Unchained Melody' scene, just prior to him passing, he had fat prosthetics on," he says. This included face, neck, and chest prosthetics with the latter requiring each chest hair to be placed one by one.
