The late Lisa Marie Presley allegedly told director Sofia Coppola her script for Priscilla was “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous” and claimed her father, Elvis Presley, came across as a “predator.”
Coppola’s new movie Priscilla adapts Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me to screen, featuring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as Priscilla and Elvis Presley.
Variety has obtained two emails sent by Lisa Marie, who died of bowel obstruction in January, to Coppola in which she asked the director to consider changing her script in order to portray her father in a more positive light, explaining that a strain could be put on her relationship with her mother, Priscilla.
In one of the emails, Lisa Marie wrote, “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. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father.”
She then added, “I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why? 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.”
Lisa Marie also praised the Baz Luhrmann biopic of her father starring Austin Butler, calling it a “ray of light,” noting that Coppola had looked to “take [her father] down on the heels of such an incredible film.”
“I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out,” Presley wrote, adding, “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.”
According to Variety, Coppola had responded to the emails, “I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honouring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity.”
In a four-star review of Coppola’s new film Priscilla, Far Out wrote: “As is often the case with Coppola’s films, Priscilla once again puts forth the idea that wealth and aspiration will always play second fiddle to what human beings genuinely want (regardless of their levels of affluence).”
The review continued: “All Priscilla wanted was to be loved and cared for, to live her own life in partnership with her husband, and what she got was a drug-addicted, self-obsessed, cultural phenomenon – a phenomenon that she would never entirely be able to remove herself from”.
