If Sofia Coppola is burdened by the weight of her famous family name, she sure doesn't show it. The Oscar-winning writer-director spoke to Seán Rocks on Arena about her latest film, Priscilla, which tells the story of the girl – and she was a girl when they met – who would become the wife of Elvis Presley. She based the film on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me:
"A couple of years ago I was reading it and I was struck by like, 'Oh my god, I didn’t know she was in high school, I didn’t know that she lived at Graceland,’ and just all these interesting details. And I was really surprised with how revealing it was and also how relatable it was."
That relatability included the sorts of experiences all girls go through – like the first kiss – but in a very unusual setting. Because when your first kiss is with the most famous man on the planet, well, who are you going to compare yourself to?
As well as using the book as a source, Coppola had a series of conversations with Priscilla Presley herself:
"She’s such a famous figure in American pop history and I was surprised at how little we know about her."
Priscilla wasn’t looking to have a film made of her book and Sofia was nervous about approaching her, but Priscilla told her that she liked her films and that she’d think about the book adaptation. When Coppola heard that Priscilla had agreed to the film and to talk to her, she was able to get down to business:
"So then I started working, just going through her book and then saving all these questions for her. And then I sat down with her and spent a lot of time talking with her and asking her questions."
Priscilla aims to tell the story of Elvis Presley’s wife from her point of view, as opposed to his, which has traditionally been the way it’s been told, if it’s been told at all:
"I just tried to focus on her story, and I felt like her story deserved to be told and that was what I was focused on. You know, we’ve heard a lot about him, and we know so little about her, so I tried to just make that the focus and the priority to tell what was her side of this whole experience."
At the start of the film, the age gap between Priscilla and Elvis is eye-watering: she was 14 and he was 24. It is, as Seán says, difficult territory to navigate, but Sofia wanted to show Priscilla’s experience without making any judgements:
"Everyone’s known about that for a long time, and she was referred to as a child bride and stuff, so I knew that abut her, but it was really interesting to hear from her perspective how she felt about it and how she experienced it and what really went on between them."
Famously, Priscilla moved into Elvis’s Graceland mansion when she was 17, and Seán tells Sofia that he found it shocking that her parents would have allowed that to happen. Coppola agrees that although the parents were protective of her, Priscilla moving into Graceland illustrates the influence of celebrity at the time – as well as the 17-year-old's own determination:
"She had a lot of drive, you know, of really putting stress on the family and... saying she’d find her own way there if they didn’t let her, so I think the parents were, you know, scared that she would never forgive them."
According to Elvis and Me, although Priscilla and Elvis shared a bed in Graceland, there was no sex until they were married. Seán wondered if Sofia found that credible and she told him what Priscilla told her:
"She really insists that he – yeah, that they didn’t sleep together until their wedding night, so I’m just going by what I know from her... I believe her."
You can hear Seán’s full conversation with Sofia Coppola by clicking above.
Priscilla is in cinemas now.