Lisa Marie Presley hit Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’ before death
Lisa Marie Presley wasn’t happy about it Sofia Coppola Priscilla film – or the portrayal of father Elvis Presley in the script – before her death.
“My father just comes off as a predator and manipulative,” Lisa Marie wrote in a 2022 email to Coppola, 52, obtained by Variety on Thursday, November 2. “As his daughter, I don’t read this or see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective on my father. I read this and see your shockingly vindictive and contemptuous perspective, and I don’t understand why?
In a second email, Lisa Marie told the director that she would be “forced to be in a position where I will have to openly express my feelings about the film and publicly go against you, my mother and this film” Coppola would continue. with the project. The messages were sent four months before Lisa Marie died in January after a fatal cardiac arrest at the age of 54, the newspaper said.
Priscilla – written, directed and produced by Coppola and stars Cailee Spaeny And Jacob Elordi – tells the story of Elvis and Priscilla Presleys romance, which started when they were 24 and 14 respectively. The film is inspired by Priscilla’s own 1985 memoir, Elvis and mein which the pair’s – sometimes tumultuous – relationship is told from her young perspective.
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Baz Lurhmann’s Oscar-nominated biopic of Elvis Presley took the world by storm, but now it’s Priscilla Presley’s time to shine. After Elvis dominated the 2022 awards season, Priscilla – written, directed and produced by Sofia Coppola – takes a different approach to Elvis and Priscilla’s love story. The film will premiere in November […]
The film was an official selection of the Venice Film Festival earlier this year and garnered critical acclaim and won Spaeny, 25, the Best Actress award.
When it comes to how Priscilla, 85, feels about the film, she told the audience in Venice that Coppola “did a great job” and “really did everything I could for her.” However, Lisa Marie shared in her emails that she worried her mother “doesn’t see the nuance here or doesn’t realize how Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out.”
“I feel protective of my mother, who spent her life improving my father’s legacy,” she wrote. “I’m afraid she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or its outcome.”
Lisa Marie commended Baz Luhrmann 2022 Elvis biopic, which she called “a break from suffering and a ray of light that hit us last year,” that made 15-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood “so proud and honored to be his granddaughters.” (Lisa Marie shared Harper and Finley with ex-husband Michael Lockwood. She was also mother to daughter Riley and son Benjamin, whom she shared with ex Danny Keough.)
“It made them feel equally blessed and less cursed in their lives,” she said. “It made us all so proud because it was a true representation of who he really was.”
Lisa Marie noted that Harper had gotten a trade notice that Priscilla was going into production — and that her family would have to “endure another blow” in their lives from a “movie about her grandfather that will try to make him look real.” , really bad, but it’s not true.
“I had to explain that her beloved grandmother supports it,” she continued. “These two little girls have been through so much over the past seven years, enduring my divorce and horrific custody battle and then losing their brother. We all drowned.”
She added that she did not understand Coppola’s “need to try to take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film” by “using the excuse” of telling her mother’s story from Coppola’s “very dark and jaded reality’.
For her part, Coppola revealed in a statement how she responded to Lisa Marie’s claims Variety from its representative on Thursday. “I hope you will feel differently when you see the final film and that you will understand that I take great care to honor your mother while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity,” she wrote, according to the outlet .
While Lisa Marie noted in her emails that Coppola needs to “understand” how she feels because of her own famous family – she is the legendary director’s daughter Francis Ford Coppola — Sofia previously shared that her connection with the material was actually the inspiration for creating Priscilla.
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“It struck me how much I was emotionally connected to it. I thought it was just going to be a fun adventure, and I was surprised by how relatable her story was,” she shared The Hollywood Reporter in August. “And I always love themes about finding your identity and growing teenage girls into adulthood.”
Sofia added that coming of age in the shadow of a public figure was relatable to her own experiences. “I know from my family what it’s like to work in a show business family. I know that when you grow up, people look at you in a different way.” she said.