Burning LOVE

After Luhrmann’s Elvis comes the flip-side tale with Sofia Coppola’s adaptation of Mrs. Presley’s memoir about a hot teen romance turned dyingember marriage in . The stars and writer-director tell Total Film how they crafted a new her-story of the King.

The well-worn adage about buses is true of Presley films – wait ages for one and then two turn up together. Just as Baz Luhrmann’s dazzling take on Elvis the showman (featuring his wife as a supporting character) was collecting awards, Sofia Coppola announced she would begin filming an adaptation of Mrs. P.’s 1985 tell-all. Filming during the autumn and winter of 2022 as Elvis headed for the Oscars, Coppola built a full-scale Graceland in Toronto and, during a 30-day shoot she calls ‘scrappy’, mapped out an alternative version of the Presleys. This time with Elvis as a secondary character in the tale of a 14-year-old girl’s complicated romance, marriage and, ultimately, emancipation at the age of 28.

The dreams, shattered and otherwise, of young women is a theme Coppola repeatedly returns to in much of her work, whether that’s lonely royals (Marie Antoinette) or bruised young wives in Tokyo (Lost in Translation), untethered teens (The Virgin Suicides), lust-raged schoolgirls (The Beguiled) or a daughter seeking connection (Somewhere). This, she says as Total Film sits down with her on the patio of a Venice villa overlooking the Adriatic Sea during the September film festival, is what attracted her to the book – and what made Priscilla trust her with material that paints an experience of coercion, isolation and emotional abuse behind the showbiz glamour.

‘I’ve always been interested in identity and how one finds that,’ explains Coppola. ‘I’m curious about how people find themselves in situations and how they emerge and who they become. When I read Priscilla’s story, I was so struck with how the setting is so unusual, but she goes through all of the things that all girls go through. Growing up into womanhood, her first kiss and becoming a mother and all these moments in one’s life that I could relate to and I thought were universal.’

Coppola put a call in to Priscilla, now 78, who had given Luhrmann her blessing with his film but hadn’t been directly involved. ‘I called her and said, “Would you ever be open to a movie about your story?”’ Coppola recalls. ‘She wasn’t looking to make a movie of [her book]. But because she liked my movies, and she felt I would do it in a sensitive way, she agreed to it.’

Such on you

While Presley may have consented to sell adaptation rights and take an exec-producer role on the project, Elvis Presley Enterprises, the company running all of the late singer’s estate, wasn’t so impressed. Presley’s widow paints a not-so-flattering picture of the King in her recollections: drugs, cheating, violence and the inescapable fact that when the duo met in Germany while Elvis was serving his draft, he was 24 and she was 14. The star kept her a secret, moving her into Graceland where she finished high school, waiting for him to return from filming in California, from the arms of other women and from his rough-housing with his lackeys, the so-called Memphis Mafia.

EPE refused to licence any music to the movie; Graceland would not be available for filming. And while Presley opened her archives, the estate would not. In comparison, Luhrmann had the full cooperation of the company, even having his own office on the grounds of the famous mansion during a year of preproduction research on a film that focuses on Presley as a tortured, exploited artist.

‘I spoke to her a lot as I was preparing it,’ Coppola nods. ‘She made herself available. It was important for me that she felt good about it, and that it represented what she was trying to express. So that was a challenge: how do I make what I want to make, but also make sure that it respects her, and is telling her story? I never wanted to vilify [Elvis]. There were fun moments, and they loved each other, and then there’s dark moments, and how to balance that, so that it wasn’t too much one way. I tried not to think about all the other opinions. I really just focused on her story.’

Though the writer-director maintains she hasn’t seen the other Elvis film, she’s aware that audiences will compare the two. ‘I was already in the process of making this, and then I heard [Luhrmann] was making his, and they were shooting it. But this is a totally different story. We have a different kind of Elvis. I was really thinking not of him as the performer, but to show him in his private life.’

Her different EP came in the shape of 26-year-old Aussie Euphoria star Jacob Elordi, who already understood the feeling of attracting screaming fans. During the Venice Film Festival, Elordi’s appearance on the red carpet drew crowds of wailing teens, and security guards hover around the villa now because he’s skulking in the garden while Coppola talks.

‘Jacob had the charisma and charm that I thought Elvis had, and embodied that kind of teenage dreamboat,’ she smiles as he lounges nearby all in black, wearing Presley pleatedfront trousers, patent shoes and expensivelooking ID bracelet. He clearly harboured fantasies of playing the King, considering his Halloween outfit of choice in 2020 was reenacting Presley family portraits with his then girlfriend, Kaia Gerber. ‘He feels like a movie star from another era,’ Coppola enthuses. ‘He’s so masculine. I just felt like he could embody that kind of essence and point of view of [Elvis]. He’s a romantic character, and he’s scary, too.’

‘I NEVER WANTED TO VILIFY ELVIS. THEY LOVED EACH OTHER’

Elordi certainly exudes a power and intimidation when towering, at 6ft 5in, over his 5ft 1in on-screen wife, Cailee Spaeny. In some scenes there’s something suitably vampiric in his looming form, and it reads as protective when he guides his co-star through a phalanx of flashes and shouts from press and fans during the premiere the night before we meet. Spaeny is still on a high from the experience when she sits down.

‘You’re meeting me the day after the most extreme experience I’ve had so far in my life. The comedown is quite strange, because it’s such a dopamine hit,’ the 25-year-old laughs, confessing she only saw the film for the first time when the premiere audience did, and while sitting next to the woman she played. A Tennessee girl who spent her childhood visiting Graceland with her Elvis-mad parents, Spaeny admits getting to play Priscilla is something of a ‘big deal’ to her family and a surreal career move for her. And just as Austin Butler had a co-star who anointed him as Elvis (Denzel Washington called Luhrmann during casting to vouch for his work ethic), Spaeny had a former colleague recommend her to Coppola as the director looked for her lead. ‘We were going to have an audition, but I was working with [regular Coppola collaborator] Kirsten Dunst at the time. Kirsten said to Sofia, “Hey, I really like her. I think she’s great.” She put in a good word for me, which is very kind of her.’

Coppola nods. ‘We had a coffee and Cailee has this baby face, you can believe that she can pass for 15. And she’s just so thoughtful. I knew that she would approach this with sensitivity.’

Baby, let's Play House

Spaeny’s jumping-off point was to avoid the Luhrmann film. ‘When I got the role, I just said, “I’ve got to get everything out of my mind. The only source I’m going to pull from is her, herself, and the book, and the home-video footage.” I knew [if I watched Elvis] it was going to seep in, affect me in some way.’

Her second step was to get inside the head of Priscilla by meeting her real-life counterpart. Spaeny chuckles as she recalls her nervousness. ‘We had lunch. I remember her walking towards the table, and me getting so flustered. She sat down, and there was an awkward pause. I was sort of staring at the table, and I didn’t know how to start the conversation, until she was finally like, “Do you want to ask me some questions?” We met a couple of times in person, and then she was always available for calls. So we had multiple conversations on the phone. And as time went on, she opened up more and more, and would share little details about inside jokes [Elvis and Priscilla] had, or specific moments about the night they first met, or about what music they would listen to, and his vulnerabilities. Those were so important in putting the pieces together for how I was going to play this character, because it’s such an impressionistic film.’

‘DEPENDING ON WHICH WIG I HAD ON, I KNEW WHERE IN THE STORY I WAS’

She and Elordi were also keen to ensure the romance was evident in the couple’s relationship. ‘As tumultuous as it was at times, there was a deep love, and I think you can see that in the way that Priscilla speaks about him even now. So it was really important for Jacob and I to bond before we got on set. The second we got cast, I was messaging him, and reaching out.’

Trying to channel the shared interests of the couple, Spaeny set up a horse-riding day and the duo also watched some of the Presleys’ favourite films together. They wanted to ensure they walked on set a believable pair who told each other their innermost secrets – and be able to tap into the tenderness or estrangement required for a film shoot that switched eras daily. ‘I was pregnant in the morning, and then after lunch I was 14, and then later in the day I was 27,’ Spaeny laughs. ‘Depending on which wig I had on my head, I knew where in the story I was. That vulnerability [with Elordi] had to be there. And I had to make sure that I could lean on him, because some days I was just sort of out of my mind!’

Some days, Spaeny had to physically lean on her co-star thanks to devices to ensure the duo’s height difference wasn’t too distracting. ‘I had these massive, platform hooker heels,’ she giggles. ‘They were hot pink, and any time you couldn’t see my feet, they’d have them on standby the whole time. Or they would build these wooden platforms across the whole set for me – I’d have a wooden runway throughout the whole of the house.’

It wasn’t just shoes that were uncomfortable. Priscilla brings up aspects of the Presley A24, romance that in modern times could be described as grooming. Priscilla wept at the Venice press conference describing a man she called ‘the love of my life’: ‘People think, “Oh, it was sex, it was this.” Not at all. I never had sex with him. He was very kind, very soft, very loving. But he also respected the fact I was only 14 years old. We were more in mind and thought, and that was our relationship.’

Coppola’s movie may shy away from the more extreme claims in Elvis and Me, but she understands that contemporary audiences may find the tale difficult to understand. ‘I never wanted to exploit the story and make it much darker. I tried to be respectful of how Priscilla wanted the story told. I tried to show what her experience was, and to leave it to the audience to take what they want,’ says Coppola diplomatically. ‘It’s breaking a myth.

But I thought it was important to tell her story, and the roles of women in that era. It’s a complicated situation. But I think that there’s lots of art that I still consider art, and maybe that person’s personal life isn’t ideal. But a lot of artists are complicated and struggle. They’re not the simplest people.’

‘We just wanted to tell a human story,’ Spaeny agrees, relating a story of being a similarly headstrong teen to Priscilla, who was heat-seeking in her ambition to be with Elvis. Spaeny was as determined to act at the same age. ‘I convinced my parents at 14 to drive to Los Angeles from Missouri; I gave them no option. I would have just got another ride to LA. I would have gotten there somehow. So those parallels are interesting. I think it’s a mistake to have these godlike figures be seen as people who aren’t complicated, and have their troubles.

I just wanted to tell the story as true as possible, and look at these people behind the curtains.’

One of those people was certainly impressed: Priscilla has talked about the moving experience of seeing the film and Spaeny won the Best Actress award at Venice. For Spaeny, both accolades were a relief. ‘I was white-knuckling it the whole time,’ she admits of watching herself on screen at the premiere. ‘When the movie ended, Priscilla turned to me and said, “Great performance.” And I was like, “I can die happy now. That was all I set out to do.” I just wanted her to be able to see herself in the film. The work is done. I can go home happy.’

PRISCILLA IS IN CINEMAS ON 5 JANUARY 2024, WITH LIMITED PREVIEWS FROM 26 DECEMBER. All actor interviews completed due to an interim agreement with A24 during SAG-AFTRA strikes.