Sofia Coppola’s new adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s life arrives at an interesting time for Elvis’ legacy. Not only did Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated biopic about the King of Rock N' Roll get a rapturous reception last year, but the Presley family themselves have often been in the spotlight these past few months.
However, Priscilla is concerned with a different story. Reframing the history many know so well, it stars Cailee Spaeny as Elvis’ wife, charting her story from the moment she met him aged just 14 right up until the end of their marriage. Told through Coppola’s unique lens, we see a very different side to Elvis as it reexamines what you think you know about this relationship.
"She's a child when they meet," says Spaeny, who tells 12DOVE that she knew very little of this story before signing onto the film. "I grew up an Elvis fan, living in the South and my mom had collected Elvis memorabilia, we had him playing on the radio the whole time. So the fact that I didn't know that side of the story was sort of shocking to me, and made it more of a sort of interesting challenge to take on how we were going to tell this story."
They were helped, she adds, by both the book the movie is based on – Priscilla’s 'Elvis and Me' memoir – and access to the woman herself, whom Spaeny spoke to extensively. "The book is so rich and the storytelling is unflinching and shocking and then, having access to talk to Priscilla herself, I think we just tried to take whatever the truth was, her perspective of this experience with him, and put it on screen," she adds. "I think that was sort of enough in terms of telling the story and having people be interested in it."
The film is similarly unflinching, foregrounding Priscilla’s young age when they met as well as depicting the violence, drugs, and infidelity in their marriage. Telling such an unflinching narrative has been met with some backlash, with the Presley family estate distancing themselves from the release and refusing to have Elvis’ songs used in the soundtrack.
Spaeny explains that she’s tried not to pay too much attention to the narratives around the film and instead just do Priscilla’s own story justice. "I think that's what's so exciting about telling stories like this because there's such an opinion on all different sides," she tells GR+. "There's an opinion from people who love the last film, who aren't even really Elvis fans that really like Austin Butler, and then you have real diehard Elvis fans, and then you have the people who are on the side of Priscilla, and then obviously, there's been so much sort of tragedy and drama around this family's life."
She smiles, "It's hard to make everyone happy, and yeah, I have seen some brutal, ruthless comments, but I think we're just well overdue to tell her side of the story and I think she deserves that. She's in her late 70s and she's never really gotten an opportunity to tell her side of things and to feel happy about the way it's told."
The biggest tell that they’d got this one right came at the Venice Film Festival, says Spaeny, when she watched it with Priscilla. "I watched it with her for the first time at Venice, she came to me and she's like, 'I watched my life through you' and that’s all we could have asked for," Spaeny recalls. "So I try my best to stay away from those comments and understand that everyone has strong opinions and just let them live in those worlds."
Priscilla is out in the US now and in UK cinemas on January 1, with special 35mm previews on December 26. For more upcoming movies, check out our guide to 2024 movie release dates.
