Sofia Coppola has a way of masterfully portraying isolation that you can almost feel off the screen. Joining her catalogue of lonely female characters from The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette is Priscilla. Based on the late singer Elvis Presley’s ex-wife, the film starring Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny, follows the life and times of Priscilla Presley and her extraordinary relationship with the King of Rock n’ Roll. On a roundtable interview attended by Filmfare, Sofia Coppola opened up about Priscilla, working with Elordi and Spaeny and more.
Opening up about the art of bringing loneliness to the big screen, Sofia Coppola revealed that she could relate to Priscilla. She said, “That period in her life felt so isolating. She seemed to be living this fairytale life. She had this beautiful life with Elvis Presley. It all seemed like a dream but the reality was that she was left at home. He didn’t take her with him and she wasn’t allowed to have friends or work. She struggled with that and it’s very understandable how that must feel. I can imagine and relate to how that might be. I tried to show that in the quiet moments of her alone.”
Talking about the juxtaposition of the character’s scenes alone and the scenes with Elvis, Coppola added, “I also tried to show the contrast there. When Elvis is home his house is full of energy and excitement. When he’s gone, she is alone and is expected to be fulfilled by that. She feels she can’t complain or tell anybody because he wants everyone around to be positive. So I could really feel her struggle from what she wrote in her book and I tried to find a way to bring that out with the actress. The editing and the sound are a big part of that. You feel the energy change when she’s alone and when she’s with him. You can tell.”
The director revealed that she was clear about the kind of representation she wanted for both Elvis and Priscilla. Offering a peek into her conversations with Elordi and Spaeney, she said, “They both did a lot of research. Caliee met with Priscilla and spoke with her. She got a lot of her voice quality from those conversations. For me, it was more important for them to have the essence of the character. I didn’t want it to be an impersonation, especially with Elvis. I made it clear with Jacob and we worked on his voice and movements. I didn’t want it to feel like a caricature. It helped that they learnt a lot about them but put that aside and focused on their human aspect and saw them as a couple in a relationship and not think too much about how the world saw them. I think they did a good job of making them human and turning them into multidimensional characters. It is definitely challenging. They needed to feel real instead of just public figures.”
The film which arrives a year after Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis starring Austin Butler, aims to uncover an untapped side of Elvis’ love story with Priscilla who was only 14 when she first met the music icon at a party. They tied the knot in 1967 and separated in 1973.
Priscilla is set to release in theatres on December 15, 2023.
Tanzim Pardiwalla
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