Lisa Marie Presley Was Left Horrified By “Vengeful” Film “Priscilla”
Priscilla is directed by Sofia Coppola and stars Jacob Elordi because the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, and Cailee Spaeny because the titular character.
Priscilla famously met Elvis when she was simply 14 years previous and he was 24. They received married seven years later and welcomed a daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, earlier than divorcing in 1972.
Forward of the film’s launch, real-life Priscilla has been filled with excessive reward for the manufacturing. Talking on the Venice Movie Pageant press convention for the biopic, she stated that she was significantly impressed by the film’s accuracy.
“It’s very difficult to sit and watch a film about you, about your life, about your love,” Priscilla stated. “Sofia did an amazing job. She did her homework, we spoke a couple of times, and I really put everything out for her that I could.”
Nonetheless, it has now been revealed that earlier than her dying earlier this 12 months, Elvis’s daughter, Lisa Marie, was a lot much less supportive of Sofia’s undertaking.
Actually, after studying the script for Priscilla, Lisa Marie warned the director that she would publicly go towards her and her mother when the film was launched in two emails which have been obtained by Selection.
The emails had been despatched 4 months earlier than Lisa Marie suffered a deadly cardiac arrest in January, and in them she claims that her well-known father “only comes across as a predator and manipulative” within the “vengeful” film.
Per Selection, her electronic mail goes on: “As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?”
Lisa Marie additionally expressed her issues that her mother “isn’t seeing the nuance” of the script “or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived” by viewers. She added, “I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
With Priscilla listed as an govt producer on the undertaking and part of the movie’s promo run, Lisa Marie wrote, “I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly.”
She went on to induce Sofia to think about her teen daughters, who she’d apparently already warned “there is going to be a movie about her grandfather that is going to try to make him look really, really bad but it’s not true.”
Replying to the e-mail, Sofia purportedly instructed Lisa Marie, “I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity.”
A supply has instructed Selection that due to Lisa Marie’s issues, Sofia made an effort to “tone down” some parts of Priscilla’s e book that had been being tailored for inclusion within the film.
The supply added that Lisa Marie is assumed to have solely seen an “early draft” of the script, which ended up being “trimmed” by about 10 pages earlier than manufacturing started.
In the meantime, Sofia has skirted round questions referring to Pricilla and Elvis’s controversial age hole when discussing the film, with the star telling Rolling Stone earlier this month, “I try not to be judgmental of any of the characters.”
Priscilla has additionally insisted on a number of events that she and Elvis weren’t intimate when she was a minor. She and Elvis first met in Germany whereas he was serving within the Military, and talking on the Venice Movie Pageant, Priscilla stated that she believes Elvis was excited by her as a result of she was a “listener.”
“Elvis would pour his heart out to me in every way in Germany: his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother, which he never, ever got over,” she stated. “People think, Oh, it was sex. No, it wasn’t. I never had sex with him.”
Priscilla added, “He was very variety, very gentle, very loving, however he additionally revered the actual fact I used to be solely 14 years previous. We had been extra in line in thought, and that was our relationship.”
Whereas Lisa Marie was clearly horrified by her mother’s biopic, she was filled with reward for final 12 months’s Elvis film — significantly Austin Butler’s efficiency as her dad.
Writing in an Instagram put up, she instructed followers, “I have seen Baz Luhrmann’s movie ‘Elvis’ twice now, and let me tell you that it is nothing short of spectacular. Absolutely exquisite. Austin Butler channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully.”
Lisa Marie added, “In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and FINALLY done accurately and respectfully. You can feel and witness Baz’s pure love, care, and respect for my father throughout this beautiful film, and it is finally something that myself and my children and their children can be proud of forever.”
She went on to say that she’d been left moved to tears to see her youngsters “visibly overwhelmed in the best way possible way, and so filled with pride about their grandfather and his legacy in a way that I have not previously experienced” after watching the film.
Lisa Marie rounded off her put up by thanking the film’s director, Baz Luhrmann, for “setting the record straight” with regard to her father.
Priscilla is at present displaying in US theaters and will likely be launched globally in 2024.
