A perennial figure in pop culture, the appetite to explore the glitz and glamour ofElvis Presleyhas increased in the last year. In 2022,Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of the King of Rock, orchestrated by the director’s trademark maximalist visual and thematic style, was a box office hit and garnered aBest Picture nomination. A year later, a vastly disparate companion piece toElviswas released in theaters withPriscilla. TheSofia Coppolafilm follows the life ofPriscilla Presleyand tracks the inscrutable domestic version of Elvis Presley from his wife’s perspective. The couple’s daughter, the lateLisa Marie Presley, a year before itsrelease in November 2023,had a few choice words for Coppola’s film and the depiction of her father.
Based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir,Elvis and Me,Priscillachronicles the titular figure (Cailee Spaeny) as a guileless teenager who attracts the eye of Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), who soon begins a long-term relationship and starts a family amid the star’s overwhelming fame. Where Luhrmann’s film embraces the god-like aura and mystique of Elvis,Coppola’s film is its antithesis, showing him as a fractured man whose celebrity persona is truncated at home.Priscillais indebted to Coppola’sfascination with the Gilded Cage— stories about melancholic and dispirited women belonging to a privileged society. When factoring in thedirector’s personal kinship with the story,as she is the daughter of the Elvis of cinema,Francis Ford Coppola,Priscillasoulfully observes alienation and the fleeting grasps of independenceagainst the backdrop of the celebrity whirlwind.
Priscilla’s life is forever changed when she becomes entwined with one of the most iconic figures in music history. As she grapples with the pressures of public scrutiny and the demands of a high-profile relationship, she strives to maintain her own identity and dreams.
Lisa Marie Presley Slammed Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’ Script
In September 2022, following the success ofElvisand A24’s release of Coppola’s film, Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis and Priscilla, got hold of the script.As reported byVariety, Presley, who passed away in January 2023, did not mince words, calling the script"shockingly vengeful and contemptuous.“She pleaded to the Oscar-winning director toreconsider the vision of her father,believing that the film would subject her family to increased public scrutiny and humiliation. “My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character,” Presley wrote in a message to Coppola. She alsodismissed the film as anaccurate interpretation of her mother’s perspective. Upon its release, she admitted how she would publicly disavowPriscilla, despite her mother’s full support of the film, who is also credited as an executive producer. Four months after sending these messages, Presley died on June 04, 2025.
Changes toPriscilla’s script, according to sources fromVariety, indicate that production was susceptible to Presley’s vehement criticisms. An insider close to the film claimed that"efforts were made to ‘tone down’ some elements of the book(Elvis and Me) regarding the couple’s courtship that would have been shocking to contemporary audiences.” The script that she read was trimmed down by 10 pages upon the beginning of principal photography. The report alludes to the age gap between Elvis and Priscilla, with the latter being 14 when she began romantically seeing the former. Presley wasconcerned that her mother wasn’t “seeing the nuance hereor realizing howElvis will be perceivedwhen this movie comes out.” Recognizing that age gap panic is prevalent in contemporary culture, she envisioned a scenario where she would have topartake in damage control regarding the Presley family name.
Lisa Marie Presley Was Protecting the Presley Family Name
Lisa Marie Presley’s condemnation ofPriscillaseems harsh, but her concerns come from a sympathetic place. In the internet age, attributed to the machinations of “cancel culture,” the public image of stars is highly precarious. Presley viewed Coppola’s vision as flagrant character assassination — the degree to which it would affect the livelihood of herself, Priscilla,and her daughter, actressRiley Keough. Presley’s tone suggested that she was indifferent towards the director’s opinions and feelings about Elvis. Rather, she was fixated onhow the public would be tempted to ostracize therock star from his established legacy. This conflict, which is ultimately unresolved due to Presley’s death, is an insightful study of how the estate of eminent figures manages their image via the media. It also signifies theincreased sensitivity surrounding the cultural reexamination of historical icons in the 21st century. Finding the balance between neglecting the faults of the past and callously dismantling one’s character and legacy is an intricate process, and it has shaped the fabric of social media behavior.
As Coppola’s film shows,perspective is key.InPriscilla, Elvis is not viewed as a monster by his titular wife. Instead, he is an unknowable figure whose disconnect from his charismatic theatricality in the public eye causes a disarming sensation. Presley’s frame of referencewould have easily caused her interpretation of the film to be skewed. She might have seen her mother, Priscilla, as a powerless woman who bows down to the domineering force of Elvis. Where critics of Baz Luhrmann’sElvislambasted itsboisterous cinematic languageand cliche-riddled story beats, Presley found it honorable. According toVariety, she praised the 2022 film starringAustin Butler, saying it made her family"so proud because it was a true depiction of who he really was.“She likened the film to a “ray of light,” helping heal the trauma of her son,Benjamin Keough,dying by suicide in 2020.Elvisis rooted in extravagance, if not pure farce, whilePriscillaprides itself on its minimalism, yet it is the former that is viewed as the rational text in Presley’s eyes.
Lisa Marie Presley’s Criticism Reflects Sofia Coppola’s Films
A nuanced perspective is something that Lisa Marie Presley hoped Sofia Coppola would have. “I would think of all people that you would understand how this would feel,” she wrote in the emails, citing Coppola’s familial connections to fame. More than most filmmakers, Coppola has insight into what it is liketo beimmersed in a world of constant glamorand public scrutiny.Presley’s frustrations could stem from an understanding of Coppola’s films and their minute meanings.Lost in Translation,Marie Antoinette, andPriscillaall reflect the plight of privileged people, and, despite the inherent skepticism of this sentiment, demonstrate thegenuine melancholy that emerges from these comfortable settings.Presley’s comments towards the director suggest Coppola’s script disregarded Elvis as a complex, three-dimensional human being.
For those who watchedPriscilla, Lisa Marie Presley’s scathing reaction to the film during pre-production might leave some on the fence. While her actions are something we might never fully understand following her untimely passing, Coppola’sdelicately observed storytelling is in full force.Elvis is not the larger-than-life entertainer immortalized in pop culture, but interpretingJacob Elordi’s performanceas a cynically revisionist take on the star is misguided. Rather, he is a flawed man whose fame has distorted his worldview. Furthermore, Cailee Spaeny’s gracious turn as Priscilla Presley breaks the real-life figure’s historical image as merely Elvis' wife. She is a woman who can besimultaneously enchanted and maladjustedby thebaggage that Elvis brings. Perhaps audiences saw a completely different story compared to what Presley read, but there is no doubt thatthe film is ultimately a piece of subjective art, especially when projected from the life of someone who lived in the action on screen.
