LIDO, Venice, Italy – The Elvis Presley Sofia Coppola presents in her dissection of his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu in “Priscilla” is far, far away from the glittery, doomed Presley of last year’s “Elvis.”
Coppola, 52, adapted and directs Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir of her courtship, marriage and ultimate emancipation from the King of Rock n Roll. As Priscilla, Callie Spaeny, a virtual unknown, won the best actress prize at September’s Venice Film Festival and is nominated in the same category for a Gotham Award. Australia’s Jacob Elordi, a teen dream in Netflix’s “Kissing Booth” movies and HBO’s “Euphoria,” is a very tall Elvis. Both are just 26.
Coppola was intrigued once she read Priscilla’s “Elvis and Me” because, she said, “The setting of Priscilla’s story is so unusual as she goes through the things all girls go through. A first kiss, becoming a mother. These are things I can relate to — but it’s in this unusual setting with this legendary couple.
“To me,” she continued, “it’s a human story and shows the ups and downs and her evolution as a girl in this world and leaving to find her own point of view. I looked at ‘Priscilla’ to tell both sides of the romance and the end of the illusion.”
Presley was 26, world famous and in Germany in the Army, when he met 14-year-old Priscilla whose father was also in the service. They divorced when she was 29.
At one point Coppola’s Elvis says, “Actually, love is not enough.” “My main source material was Priscilla’s book and this was a direct quote from the book,” she said. “Personally, I’m not sure the most impressive thing about the story isn’t the endurance of this love. The power of this love that to this day when you talk to Priscilla, you feel the love. It’s true, it’s undying. Love is this tether that ties two people together and I think that’s for eternity.”
Said Spaeny, “It was important to see the story from the beginning.”
Concluded Coppola, “Just being able to speak to Priscilla added so much, the details she would tell me. She described the scene in the movie theater in Germany” – an empty theater except for the two – “and Elvis saying the lines. That wasn’t in the book. You know he wanted to be a serious actor.
“But I tried to stay in Priscilla’s view, put you in her shoes. Seeing her, I can go back to being that age and having a crush on an older guy. And that’s what I love about films, experiencing someone else’s perspective than your own.”
“Priscilla” opens Friday
