Lisa Marie Presley reportedly told Sofia Coppola that she thought the script for her latest film, Priscilla, was “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous” and depicted Elvis Presley as “a predator”.
In two emails obtained by Variety, Lisa Marie Presley, who died in January, shared her horror with the Oscar-winning director, asking her to reconsider how her father was depicted and suggesting the film could put strain on her relationship with her mother, the film’s subject Priscilla Presley.
Priscilla is a biopic based on her 1985 memoir Elvis and Me and depicts her courtship with Elvis, which began in 1959 when Priscilla was 14 and Elvis was 24. Priscilla Presley is credited as an executive producer on the film.
“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative,” Presley wrote in one of the two emails, sent four hours apart in September 2022. “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?”
She added: “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.”
Presley praised Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis as “a break from suffering and a ray of light”, adding that she did not understand Coppola’s “need to attempt to take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality”.
“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. “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.”
Presley said she had spoken to one of her children about the film, who had asked after seeing an announcement about it. “I had to explain that we are going to have to endure another hit in our lives. That 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,” she wrote.
“I had to explain that her beloved grandmother is supporting it. These two little girls have been through so much in the past 7 years, enduring my divorce and horrific custody battle and then losing their brother. We’ve all been drowning.”
Presley died from complications caused by bariatric surgery she’d undergone several years before.
Priscilla was an official selection at Venice film festival and has been reviewed positively by critics, including praise for Cailee Spaeny, who plays Priscilla and the Australian Euphoria star Jacob Elordi, who plays Elvis.
Priscilla Presley has said it was “very difficult to watch a film about you and your life and about your love” but has praised Coppola’s work and research and said she loves the film. “And I really put everything out for her that I could,” she said.
Variety reported that Presley was responding to an earlier draft of the script, which was later “trimmed” by 10 pages.
Asked by Variety to comment on the emails, Coppola’s representative responded with the director’s response in the emails to Presley.
“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,” Coppola wrote.
