Vanessa Hudgens may not have interviewed her ex, Austin Butler, on the Oscars red carpet, but fans were treated to a bit of a reunion at the after-party.
On March 12, a photo surfaced of Hudgens and her butterfly neck tattoo passing by the Academy Award–nominated actor as he waved at the camera while exiting the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. Though no context was provided, I imagine the interaction went something like this:
Austin Butler: Hey.
Vanessa Hudgens: I see you’re still using the accent.
Austin Butler: Yeah.
Scene.
Austin Butler, 31, dated Vanessa Hudgens, 34, from 2011 to 2020, with the High School Musical star heavily encouraging the Carrie Diaries actor to find a way to play Elvis after hearing him sing. Following their split, Butler faced a bit of backlash for failing to credit his ex with pushing him to pursue the role, though he eventually confirmed Hudgens’s influence. While she didn’t respond to that particular internet discourse, she did write “crying” in the comments of an Instagram post poking fun at Butler’s semipermanent Elvis accent.
“I am getting rid of the accent,” Butler later told Graham Norton after months of red-carpet and late-night interviews sparked memes about his Memphis drawl. “It made me self-conscious for a second because I thought, Am I being phony? Is this not my voice?”
