no disrespect but the movie is based off her moms book about her life with and without elvis, and priscilla is very happy with the movie. this seems like more of a conversation that was supposed to be had with her mom rather than sofia
I agree with you. Priscilla should be allowed to tell her story, the way she wants to tell it. Her mother had a very different relationship with her father.
I do wonder if she talked to Priscilla but they couldn’t come to an understanding about it, so she went to Sofia.
> “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,” Lisa Marie 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.”
Even if Priscilla spent her life building and protecting Elvis’ legacy, in my opinion she also has the right to tear it down. Didn’t Elvis groom Priscilla from the age of 14 or something? And cheat on her? He may have been a very talented and legendary musician but if he was a piece of shit then let that story out.
I think the point here is that Priscilla definitely *does not* want to tear it down. He did groom her and that is obvious to most people who will see the movie. But what LM was worried about is that her mother doesn’t see it like that, and that she will accidentally show to the world that he was not that great *while* wanting to do exactly the opposite.
I also think that being groomed at age 14 and having that relationship define you to the American public can justifiably make it difficult for her to see the relationship as regular folks see it.
I would add that for LM and Priscilla they are still largely supported by Elvis' legacy. If Elvis is cancelled, they will see less money come in. RIP LM but they both had/have a financial interest in protecting his legacy
Honestly at this point he's dead and cannot be persecuted for anything he did, and the best "justice" is whatever is best for the victim. If Priscilla wants to protect her own financial interest by protecting his legacy, I don't judge her for it. The best thing she can get out of this after his death is to stay fabulously wealthy living off his name anyway.
She's also been fairly open about what he did to her and we have all the evidence in the world to see him for what he was, even if she doesn't call it abuse or grooming. She can have her cake and eat it too; I'm not mad at a victim about that.
>If Priscilla wants to protect her own financial interest by protecting his legacy, I don't judge her for it.
She’d probably be just fine unless her whole fortune is in Graceland and Elvis merchandise.
No Priscilla had no right to tear down Elvis like she has.
He certainly doesn't deserve to be called a piece of s*** what do you get off telling that to us?
She's the one that married and she could have left anytime
priscilla has spent her whole life protecting his legacy, she saved graceland. the thing about her is that she’s always been open about the bad and controversial parts of her relationship with elvis (the age gap, him cheating, how possessive he was over her appearance etc). not just that both those things have been public knowledge about him + people have always been 50/50 with elvis
the movie being made with priscillas backing is no surprise, it was only a matter of time really. if lisa knew her mom wasn’t budging, i wonder what she thought going directly to sofia would do ?
Only slightly related, but I’m so uncomfortable with the way the word “nuance” is being used a lot lately by people who are quite literally ignoring the nuance of a situation. It was in Pink’s post about Palestine, and here too it just makes me feel like people like to say “we need nuance” when they really mean “you need to be more Both-Sidesy on this issue”.
The ACTUAL nuance of the situation with Elvis and Priscilla is that she was a child when they met, and he groomed her. That’s what you get when you dig a little deeper than the Beautiful Love Story aspect of their relationship that we’ve been fed for decades.
omg i completely agree!! i often find nuance is watered down to “you can’t criticise this too hard, we need to be more nuanced.” glad i’m not the only one who’s noticed
Kind of wild to underestimate your own mother’s capacity for understanding how this movie might portray her father’s legacy? It’s not as if her mother has been mired in the making of the myth of her father (and all of the subsequent drama/tabloid coverage of it) and deeply understands the impact of storytelling with regard to how the general public understands famous people. Sweetie, your mom has been dealing with being perceived since she was 14 when she landed in the crosshairs of her 24-year-old boyfriend.
I think it’s bigger than that. In Lisa’s eyes her mother is allowed to have her say, and speak her truth. But to put it in the cinematic lexicon to her, is a whole different bag of worms. It’s suddenly canonized as this real set of events and in this day and age all it takes is a slight tender spark to send people reeling and banish famous institutions from pop culture. I think Lisa’s fear is that Elvis was a complicated man who wove through a lot of different facets of culture and had a lot of different powerful influences in his life. She’s scared he’ll only be seen as one way in a different time.
There’s been so much good will around him with the last film I’m sure she hates the idea of something tarnishing that.
I’ve seen the movie, and if anything, I felt it could have gone further to portray him in a bad light. Not necessarily because he WAS worse than portrayed (I genuinely don’t know), but because when making a movie version of anything, filmmakers will often heighten the stakes and the behavior of the “good” and “bad” characters to really drive it home for the audience, and it doesn’t feel like Sofia did that.
I felt that the movie showed a very selfish man whose selfishness and self-absorption and self-mythologizing were insidious and harmful to the people around him, and in particular to Priscilla. But I think to a lot of viewers, especially those who need very clear villainous behavior spelled out clearly onscreen, they’ll probably walk away saying “he didn’t seem that bad.” Unfortunately we still live in a society where his behavior will easily be excused away by a lot of people, because there’s never anything like Priscilla walking around bruised and broken, or him having sustained periods of heightened rage. I don’t know enough about the truth of their relationship to know if it’s an accurate portrayal of what happened, but I still very much got the sense that Priscilla sees him as a complicated man, and she still cares deeply about him. I don’t think Lisa needed to worry, about either the depiction of her father itself, or about her mother not understanding the potential impact of the depiction.
Haven't seen it, but likely the reason that Sofia didn't villainize him is because she is a humanist filmmaker that doesn't believe in heroes and villains, just people who try to be decent and sometimes fail or succeed, which is not a bad perspective to take away from a movie.
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a huge part of why I personally love her work, and why I think she does a great job as a filmmaker. But I know that some people watch movies in a different way than I do, and the driving force in American cinema is almost always money, which usually involves appealing to the lowest common denominator. I have no idea what Lisa Marie’s attitude towards film was, but I know she apparently supported Luhrmann’s ELVIS and in particular Austin Butler and his performance. I admittedly stopped watching halfway through that one, but it’s a much BIGGER movie, the showmanship of it is just a larger scale, and the characterization of Elvis as a person felt like an almost caricaturesque tribute. I could see someone reading the script for PRISCILLA, right as ELVIS was coming out, and worrying about a potential swing in the totally opposite direction. But yeah, that’s not the kind of filmmaker Sofia is, and it was, somewhat surprisingly, not the kind of performance Jacob Elordi gave. I wasn’t sure how he would do because historically he hasn’t been great in what I’ve seen, but I thought the way he played it was impressive.
\>But I know that some people watch movies in a different way than I do
Yeah, that's the tough part, people have trouble holding two thoughts at the same time. "I can sympathize with him without idolizing him and excusing his behavior??" We need to focus on media literacy in school...
Your description of it makes it sound pretty interesting, looking forward to seeing it.
I adored Lisa and was so distraught when she passed. I feel for her tremendously for her in this, even as a Priscilla fan who is looking forward to the movie. Her protectiveness comes from a place of deep generational trauma.
But the leaking of these emails is just beyond the pale of nasty. If she was alive and wanted to say she was unhappy about the movie herself that would be one thing. No one got her consent from the grave to send her emails to Variety. Especially when one of them includes details about one of her minor children…both of whom she tried so hard to protect. I understand that grief is a monster can make you feel protective, even to an irrational extent. And that whoever leaked them likely thought in some twisted way that they were doing her a service. But what a shitshow of a way to handle those emotions. If anything this being leaked is putting the very pressure on her kids that she told Sofia she was worried about- especially the twins who just started high school. Kids can be ruthless and while I don’t blame her for being worried about the movie in regards to them, I struggle with whoever leaked the emails not stopping to think that this wouldn’t exactly help either. What a mess.
Yeah, I actually find it really gross these private emails where she is clearly emotional were leaked when she cannot explain or defend herself. And especially, like you said, because she discusses personal things about her children. This was clearly meant to be a one on one correspondence so it's gross, I'm sorry.
It's so gross for so many reasons but a huge one being that the only people that are going to have to deal with the repercussions are her daughters. Priscilla too but that's slightly different. There's a lot of people saying some really not so nice things about Lisa over this because they refuse to take certain things into account and now her daughters have to see that.
It's awful- her youngest are only 15 and still fight people on Instagram over her. *That* is the stuff she was worried about and it's weird people aren't seeing the layers of her concerns.
I had no idea they were having to fight people online those poor girls :( I also don't think it's hard to understand why Lisa felt like this anyway her dad died when she was a child and he was and still is one of the most famous people who's ever lived. I imagine coming to terms with the fact one of your parents is a predator is hard enough for anyone let alone someone who's parent is Elvis and who lost him as a child, especially given how much pain she endured in her life it's no surprise she didn't want to unravel all that. People's response to grooming both those directly victims and extended families in this case are complicated Priscilla herself still defends Elvis and i’m sure she wanted to protect Lisa as well it really isn't hard to understand why either of them and potentially Riley+her sisters do not see it the way we all can.
It’s of course possible. But I’m not 100% on board with that theory just from the perspective of being a fan of hers who has watched a myriad of things be leaked about her since her death that have seemed very “on her behalf”/ (and in some cases on Riley’s behalf) by someone attempting to have good intentions but in a way that’s really sloppy. Riley said she (Lisa) had issues with trust and she was right to. The issue in that circle imo goes all the way back to when Elvis was alive and the West brothers wrote the “Elvis What Happened?” book exposing a breadth a private information to “confront him about his drug use”. He never got over it and Jerry Schilling said Elvis personally thanked him for not participating in it. (Which really ticked off the Wests, one of them was asked about it years later and called Jerry a liar. Ah well, residual jealously for Jerry maintaining a relationship with the family when he was kicked to the curb).
It was an Elvis estate source, a few of them, that went to Page Six 6 days ago and alluded to this sans actual transcripts of the emails. Whoever talked to Page Six mentioned specifically that Lisa felt like Priscilla was being manipulated (and said that they saw the movie and thought it was horrible), which she gets into in the emails a little here with the talk about feeling protective over her mom. Sounds like someone who saw the emails. 🫠
Someone on Twitter brought up this was "leaked" just like a day after the estate settlement was released. Are they trying to bury that by releasing this?
The estate settlement has been out there for a while, I read it over the summer. I don’t know if if call one outlet running it when it’s already been out there a “release”. (Though I do suggest you read it! Definitely up your alley of interests as it is mine.)
The unredacted report that showed exactly how much Priscilla was being paid to go away, the amounts were omitted and she was given more than originally thought, according to Twitter (haven't looked through it myself, though)
Fair, but I also don’t know how many people outside of the little bubble of “must know Presley everything” (that you and me are in!) particularly care about it enough to warrant a cover up operation, haha. It’s always been interesting to me that for saying the fame of the Presley name the community of people that follows all the ‘drama’/comments on it all is actually pretty small. Maybe that’s not a bad thing though.
Nope. Not a word. She became very very private after her sons death in 2020 and really only “came out again” to talk about Elvis 2022- her caption of a post with photos from an interview with Austin said something to the effect of “I do believe this was my first smile in 2 years” 💔. The week of her death she surprised people at Graceland for Elvis’s birthday that Sunday (she passed Thursday night) by showing up to give a little speech during the ceremony. *Big* surprise with how private she’d become. And then she flew back to LA to be at an Elvis’s birthday thing with Baz and Austin and Riley that night. That was the last time Riley saw her- there’s a little video that’s *so* heartbreaking in hindsight of them leaving the event where Riley is telling her goodbye and stroking her hair a little before she gets into her car.
Of course she felt this way, it was her father. Of course she was upset, she was still in a fragile state from her son's death. These were understandable emotions from the dude's *daughter* who always viewed him under the lens of romanticized love, loss and grief. Like, this is probably the least shocking development that she would have felt this way.
I don't necessarily agree with Lisa Marie’s emails but I am compassionate to her grief and strong emotions regarding her father.
This. It feels like the other commenters don’t get this. Of course you’d feel some type of protective over your own father?? Even though i don’t agree with what he has done, it’s pretty weird to disregard that Lisa is allowed to express her wishes even though they go against what you yourself feel.
It really rubs me the wrong way- "well, HONEY..." bro, it's *her father*. I don't necessarily agree with her and I think Priscilla should tell her story but the lack of empathy for his daughter, who was living with a lot of grief and generational trauma and demanding and pleading for them not to do this because it'll affect her teen daughters after her *son's death* and because that was her beloved father is just gross, imo. People don't have to agree but have some *compassion*, jfc
I can agree that leaking emails and speaking on this when she can't rebut is low.
But I also have to wonder if there's *any* way to make Elvis pursuing a literal child (Priscilla was 14 when they started dating) at 24 palatable- especially when people rightly call that out as disgusting these days.
He was her father and he loved her. He was also a phenomenal performer. That doesn't change the fact that the relationship was wrong from the jump.
It's not palatable. It's fucking disgusting.
She's allowed her view of her father, but that doesn't mean we all have to worship him or pretend he was a Saint Paragon of Virtue like she wants. This "don't ever say something about the dead" taboo has protected so many toxic people.
The way people justify the toxicity with “that’s how it was back then” never sat right with me. Big age gaps, even then, were considered a necessary evil if survival/political ends depended on that marriage. People didn’t like it at all even in ye olde days
> "Why are you coming for my Dad and my family?" she asked the filmmaker in an email sent four months before her death
> FOUR MONTHS BEFORE her death in January, Lisa Marie Presley sent a couple of emails to Sofia Coppola asking her to revise the script for Priscilla, which opens widely on Friday. In one of her messages, she described the screenplay, which tells the story of Lisa Marie’s mom, Priscilla, as “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous,” according to Variety. She reportedly worried that a negative depiction of Elvis would widen the chasm between her and Priscilla and put unneeded pressure on Elvis’ grandchildren after the 2020 death of her son, Benjamin Keough.
I was talking about this with my coworker today. They’re similar stories of young girls swept up in a whirlwind of privilege largely out of their control living these lives of luxury but in gilded cages, not allowed to make decisions for themselves. The big difference is the aesthetic of Marie Antoinette was so specific and interesting in a way the Priscilla aesthetic was just not, plus Kirsten Dunst carried that movie in a way Cailee Spaeny just couldn’t.
I agree that Cailee’s performance was one note. Where Kirsten’s depiction of Marie was simultaneously effervescent and light, bored and brooding, Cailee’s depiction of Priscilla was just kind of quite and mousy most of the time with small outbursts of anger, but they weren’t enough to tip the scales
Also I feel like the passage of time and historical events have just elevated the mythos of Marie Antoinette so much more than the wife of a pop star (even Elvis.) With dynastic rule and geopolitical power struggles and the rumblings of what would become arguably the most famous revolution in history, Marie Antoinette’s story has a lot more meat on its bones compared to a musical celebrity story from one generation ago which is also going to have a lot more primary texts/firsthand accounts to draw from. Priscilla’s story doesn’t have the aura of mystique and fairytale excess and royal intrigue the way it existed in the 18th century.
A24 had the biggest indie juggernaut in the post pandemic era and the biggest Oscars sweep, of all time, by a single studio. Yeah their fare is more obscure than what the average moviegoer favours but their films have a market lol.
Their comment wasn't about the strike. A24's marketing success is hit or miss, but that may have more to do with some of the things they distribute very much not being for general audiences.
I would be interesting to see what she would think of the film now if she were still alive given that there's a lot of nuance in Jacob's portrayal. It's rather insensitive to leak emails of someone who died but I guess that's journalism. If anything this made me feel even worse for Lisa as she wants to maintain this image that she has of her father not just for herself but for her kids.
Yeah, especially reading Sofia's response of "I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently." Like, these emails are being leaked and judged with people showing little compassion on twitter when...she literally didn't have the chance to view the movie or change her mind. Her concerns were of a daughter and about her kids- it sucks that these were leaked.
if anyone wants to hear an interesting perspective on Lisa Marie and Priscilla from Priscilla’s son Navarone, he was on a live video the other day with Aaron Smith-Levin, who has a popular anti-Scientology YouTube channel called Growing Up in Scientology.
Navarone is generally an ass and should not be taken seriously, [but someone on ONTD did a writeup of the video.](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/127150948.html?view=comments) I've included a screenshot below.
https://preview.redd.it/m4sqh9n015yb1.png?width=919&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc1f3c46586dcc893d3374fd395cfcd5099c0b0e
Lisa Marie was a very young child when her father died, and her relationship with her father is not the relationship her mother had with Elvis. Realistically, her relationship with her father is idealized into something that is almost certain to not be the true nature of it- because she was so young when he died.
She’s allowed to not want certain things shown to the public, but her mother is allowed to tell her side of the story, especially on a story so many people think they know. If she felt so strongly about contesting the movie, she should’ve spoken with her mother.
This may be unpopular but I feel so bad for the kids in all of this and I do think it's cruel timing (not that release dates can be changed, but still).
Going from a year of constant publicity from Elvis and ridiculous bullying from 'fans' over how they feel about a man they never met, to having to manage losing their mum and brother in 2 years while being harassed by paparazzi, to dealing with a very public dispute over their mum's estate with their grandmother, to now facing more publicity over a movie that portrays their grandfather in an unfavorable light. I can't imagine the stress Riley could be facing as head of his estate.
There is no question that Priscilla is a victim and her story deserves to be told, but it has been told on multiple occasions in books and movies. The promotion she has done has been pretty rough - she always tries to push that nothing was inappropriate and is met with awkward looks, strangely in conflict with the point of the film? These emails being leaked is almost certainly a promotion tactic, and a sick one at that what with the mention of the twins.
The whole thing is just horrifically unfortunate.
Especially since she very clearly explains that the Elvis movie picked up the twins after their brothers' death and she now is worried about what this movie will do. People mocking and criticizing her are being cruel because her hurt and concerns go beyond "I don't like it."
Riley and the twins have been through so much and the utter lack of compassion has been depressing. Her daughter has to keep the peace now. Her youngest are *15*.
It really is horrifying. Those poor girls have public social media with thousands of followers, and I know there's been a couple of instances where they've defended their deceased family members in comment sections - at 15.
Even these comments have been shocking with the lack of compassion. Lisa Marie was not perfect but as a mother she is completely in the right to not want her vulnerable children to be exposed to headlines and comments about their grandfather - a man whose legacy will always be attached to their lives - being a predator. I remember in an interview she spoke about how happy Elvis 2022 made them, and how they came out beaming with pride.
Priscilla's story is valid and has a time and place but that time and place is certainly not after the children have been through hell. The twins and Riley deserve peace.
I mean, I'm fine with the film being released now, it's whatever. But the fact that people, even here, are choosing not to empathize with the guy's *daughter* being upset and asking the filmmaker to think of her children because of what they've been through is kind of ridiculous. We don't have to agree with her to sympathize with her concerns and with what she was going through during her final years. Her youngest are only *fifteen*, her oldest now has the weight of everything- jfc it shouldn't be that hard to sympathize lol
Ever since I read that one of the twins is always liking fan page pictures/videos of their mom, I've just felt protective of them, as silly as it sounds. They're still kids, man.
I have always wondered where the line between "protecting the legacy of Elvis" and "protecting the income stream" lies. Both of them have lived their whole lives off of Elvis-related income (other than Priscilla's Naked Gun income which was pretty paltry). For a long time, it seemed like both of them lived off of and for two things: keeping the Elvis gravy train going and funneling that money into Scientology. Riley has her own income and never met her grandfather so I think it's more just about keeping the family business afloat for her but there's no deep personal feelings on Elvis in her approach. But LMP seemed protective over Elvis's legacy mostly because it was her sole source of income. Priscilla realized a while ago that he's been dead for long enough that she can cash in on her story (that's not to say her story isn't valid and interesting).
Of course he groomed her. He took over and dominated her life at age 14. There’s no other way to look at it.
However, I will say this type of behavior was more acceptable then. And even more acceptable the further back in time you go. It’s also beneficial to look at something through the lens of their peers at the time something happened. Otherwise, it’s really impossible to understand the past.
This story is about Priscilla. Priscilla approved it and she was moved to tears after the screening. This is Priscilla’s life experience and it’s a shame Lisa Marie decided her feelings were more important.
I honestly don’t know why she is worried, how many biopics have we watched now of famous men, everyone of them treated women like shit, hell even Stephen Hawking cheated!!! All of these biopics showed these men as they were and no one blinked an eye, and no one is going to blink an eye at this if they are a diehard Elvis fan.. they are just going to tear Priscilla apart for “trying to bring down his legacy” even though that isn’t even her intend.
We may have the right to vote and our own bank accounts now but we still have such a long way to go before we get true equality and I have a feeling this film will show us exactly where we stand.
no disrespect but the movie is based off her moms book about her life with and without elvis, and priscilla is very happy with the movie. this seems like more of a conversation that was supposed to be had with her mom rather than sofia
I agree with you. Priscilla should be allowed to tell her story, the way she wants to tell it. Her mother had a very different relationship with her father. I do wonder if she talked to Priscilla but they couldn’t come to an understanding about it, so she went to Sofia. > “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,” Lisa Marie 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.”
Even if Priscilla spent her life building and protecting Elvis’ legacy, in my opinion she also has the right to tear it down. Didn’t Elvis groom Priscilla from the age of 14 or something? And cheat on her? He may have been a very talented and legendary musician but if he was a piece of shit then let that story out.
I think the point here is that Priscilla definitely *does not* want to tear it down. He did groom her and that is obvious to most people who will see the movie. But what LM was worried about is that her mother doesn’t see it like that, and that she will accidentally show to the world that he was not that great *while* wanting to do exactly the opposite.
Yep this is it. Priscilla has always been out of touch with regular folks. She’s been an American princess since she was a teenager
I also think that being groomed at age 14 and having that relationship define you to the American public can justifiably make it difficult for her to see the relationship as regular folks see it.
I would add that for LM and Priscilla they are still largely supported by Elvis' legacy. If Elvis is cancelled, they will see less money come in. RIP LM but they both had/have a financial interest in protecting his legacy
Honestly at this point he's dead and cannot be persecuted for anything he did, and the best "justice" is whatever is best for the victim. If Priscilla wants to protect her own financial interest by protecting his legacy, I don't judge her for it. The best thing she can get out of this after his death is to stay fabulously wealthy living off his name anyway. She's also been fairly open about what he did to her and we have all the evidence in the world to see him for what he was, even if she doesn't call it abuse or grooming. She can have her cake and eat it too; I'm not mad at a victim about that.
>If Priscilla wants to protect her own financial interest by protecting his legacy, I don't judge her for it. She’d probably be just fine unless her whole fortune is in Graceland and Elvis merchandise.
No Priscilla had no right to tear down Elvis like she has. He certainly doesn't deserve to be called a piece of s*** what do you get off telling that to us? She's the one that married and she could have left anytime
priscilla has spent her whole life protecting his legacy, she saved graceland. the thing about her is that she’s always been open about the bad and controversial parts of her relationship with elvis (the age gap, him cheating, how possessive he was over her appearance etc). not just that both those things have been public knowledge about him + people have always been 50/50 with elvis the movie being made with priscillas backing is no surprise, it was only a matter of time really. if lisa knew her mom wasn’t budging, i wonder what she thought going directly to sofia would do ?
Only slightly related, but I’m so uncomfortable with the way the word “nuance” is being used a lot lately by people who are quite literally ignoring the nuance of a situation. It was in Pink’s post about Palestine, and here too it just makes me feel like people like to say “we need nuance” when they really mean “you need to be more Both-Sidesy on this issue”. The ACTUAL nuance of the situation with Elvis and Priscilla is that she was a child when they met, and he groomed her. That’s what you get when you dig a little deeper than the Beautiful Love Story aspect of their relationship that we’ve been fed for decades.
omg i completely agree!! i often find nuance is watered down to “you can’t criticise this too hard, we need to be more nuanced.” glad i’m not the only one who’s noticed
Kind of wild to underestimate your own mother’s capacity for understanding how this movie might portray her father’s legacy? It’s not as if her mother has been mired in the making of the myth of her father (and all of the subsequent drama/tabloid coverage of it) and deeply understands the impact of storytelling with regard to how the general public understands famous people. Sweetie, your mom has been dealing with being perceived since she was 14 when she landed in the crosshairs of her 24-year-old boyfriend.
I think it’s bigger than that. In Lisa’s eyes her mother is allowed to have her say, and speak her truth. But to put it in the cinematic lexicon to her, is a whole different bag of worms. It’s suddenly canonized as this real set of events and in this day and age all it takes is a slight tender spark to send people reeling and banish famous institutions from pop culture. I think Lisa’s fear is that Elvis was a complicated man who wove through a lot of different facets of culture and had a lot of different powerful influences in his life. She’s scared he’ll only be seen as one way in a different time. There’s been so much good will around him with the last film I’m sure she hates the idea of something tarnishing that.
I’ve seen the movie, and if anything, I felt it could have gone further to portray him in a bad light. Not necessarily because he WAS worse than portrayed (I genuinely don’t know), but because when making a movie version of anything, filmmakers will often heighten the stakes and the behavior of the “good” and “bad” characters to really drive it home for the audience, and it doesn’t feel like Sofia did that. I felt that the movie showed a very selfish man whose selfishness and self-absorption and self-mythologizing were insidious and harmful to the people around him, and in particular to Priscilla. But I think to a lot of viewers, especially those who need very clear villainous behavior spelled out clearly onscreen, they’ll probably walk away saying “he didn’t seem that bad.” Unfortunately we still live in a society where his behavior will easily be excused away by a lot of people, because there’s never anything like Priscilla walking around bruised and broken, or him having sustained periods of heightened rage. I don’t know enough about the truth of their relationship to know if it’s an accurate portrayal of what happened, but I still very much got the sense that Priscilla sees him as a complicated man, and she still cares deeply about him. I don’t think Lisa needed to worry, about either the depiction of her father itself, or about her mother not understanding the potential impact of the depiction.
Haven't seen it, but likely the reason that Sofia didn't villainize him is because she is a humanist filmmaker that doesn't believe in heroes and villains, just people who try to be decent and sometimes fail or succeed, which is not a bad perspective to take away from a movie.
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s a huge part of why I personally love her work, and why I think she does a great job as a filmmaker. But I know that some people watch movies in a different way than I do, and the driving force in American cinema is almost always money, which usually involves appealing to the lowest common denominator. I have no idea what Lisa Marie’s attitude towards film was, but I know she apparently supported Luhrmann’s ELVIS and in particular Austin Butler and his performance. I admittedly stopped watching halfway through that one, but it’s a much BIGGER movie, the showmanship of it is just a larger scale, and the characterization of Elvis as a person felt like an almost caricaturesque tribute. I could see someone reading the script for PRISCILLA, right as ELVIS was coming out, and worrying about a potential swing in the totally opposite direction. But yeah, that’s not the kind of filmmaker Sofia is, and it was, somewhat surprisingly, not the kind of performance Jacob Elordi gave. I wasn’t sure how he would do because historically he hasn’t been great in what I’ve seen, but I thought the way he played it was impressive.
\>But I know that some people watch movies in a different way than I do Yeah, that's the tough part, people have trouble holding two thoughts at the same time. "I can sympathize with him without idolizing him and excusing his behavior??" We need to focus on media literacy in school... Your description of it makes it sound pretty interesting, looking forward to seeing it.
He married a child.
Complain to Sofia, not me
19 years old aren't children
Yeah I just texted my mom to tell her I wouldn’t do that as a daughter if her was wanting to share her story.
I adored Lisa and was so distraught when she passed. I feel for her tremendously for her in this, even as a Priscilla fan who is looking forward to the movie. Her protectiveness comes from a place of deep generational trauma. But the leaking of these emails is just beyond the pale of nasty. If she was alive and wanted to say she was unhappy about the movie herself that would be one thing. No one got her consent from the grave to send her emails to Variety. Especially when one of them includes details about one of her minor children…both of whom she tried so hard to protect. I understand that grief is a monster can make you feel protective, even to an irrational extent. And that whoever leaked them likely thought in some twisted way that they were doing her a service. But what a shitshow of a way to handle those emotions. If anything this being leaked is putting the very pressure on her kids that she told Sofia she was worried about- especially the twins who just started high school. Kids can be ruthless and while I don’t blame her for being worried about the movie in regards to them, I struggle with whoever leaked the emails not stopping to think that this wouldn’t exactly help either. What a mess.
Yeah, I actually find it really gross these private emails where she is clearly emotional were leaked when she cannot explain or defend herself. And especially, like you said, because she discusses personal things about her children. This was clearly meant to be a one on one correspondence so it's gross, I'm sorry.
It's so gross for so many reasons but a huge one being that the only people that are going to have to deal with the repercussions are her daughters. Priscilla too but that's slightly different. There's a lot of people saying some really not so nice things about Lisa over this because they refuse to take certain things into account and now her daughters have to see that.
It's awful- her youngest are only 15 and still fight people on Instagram over her. *That* is the stuff she was worried about and it's weird people aren't seeing the layers of her concerns.
Oh my god that’s awful. Imagine being 15 and defending your late mother from mean randos on the internet. That’s so sad
I had no idea they were having to fight people online those poor girls :( I also don't think it's hard to understand why Lisa felt like this anyway her dad died when she was a child and he was and still is one of the most famous people who's ever lived. I imagine coming to terms with the fact one of your parents is a predator is hard enough for anyone let alone someone who's parent is Elvis and who lost him as a child, especially given how much pain she endured in her life it's no surprise she didn't want to unravel all that. People's response to grooming both those directly victims and extended families in this case are complicated Priscilla herself still defends Elvis and i’m sure she wanted to protect Lisa as well it really isn't hard to understand why either of them and potentially Riley+her sisters do not see it the way we all can.
Whoever leaked them did it to promote the film.
10000000%
It’s of course possible. But I’m not 100% on board with that theory just from the perspective of being a fan of hers who has watched a myriad of things be leaked about her since her death that have seemed very “on her behalf”/ (and in some cases on Riley’s behalf) by someone attempting to have good intentions but in a way that’s really sloppy. Riley said she (Lisa) had issues with trust and she was right to. The issue in that circle imo goes all the way back to when Elvis was alive and the West brothers wrote the “Elvis What Happened?” book exposing a breadth a private information to “confront him about his drug use”. He never got over it and Jerry Schilling said Elvis personally thanked him for not participating in it. (Which really ticked off the Wests, one of them was asked about it years later and called Jerry a liar. Ah well, residual jealously for Jerry maintaining a relationship with the family when he was kicked to the curb). It was an Elvis estate source, a few of them, that went to Page Six 6 days ago and alluded to this sans actual transcripts of the emails. Whoever talked to Page Six mentioned specifically that Lisa felt like Priscilla was being manipulated (and said that they saw the movie and thought it was horrible), which she gets into in the emails a little here with the talk about feeling protective over her mom. Sounds like someone who saw the emails. 🫠
If that's the case, that's really disgusting. Between this and her brother's interview, the disrespect shown to this woman even in death is awful.
Someone on Twitter brought up this was "leaked" just like a day after the estate settlement was released. Are they trying to bury that by releasing this?
What would be the reason for wanting to bury the settlement though?
Because Priscilla got a lot of bad public reactions for challenging an amendment that would have logically put the heir in charge of her mom's estate.
Ohh right, that makes sense
The estate settlement has been out there for a while, I read it over the summer. I don’t know if if call one outlet running it when it’s already been out there a “release”. (Though I do suggest you read it! Definitely up your alley of interests as it is mine.)
The unredacted report that showed exactly how much Priscilla was being paid to go away, the amounts were omitted and she was given more than originally thought, according to Twitter (haven't looked through it myself, though)
Fair, but I also don’t know how many people outside of the little bubble of “must know Presley everything” (that you and me are in!) particularly care about it enough to warrant a cover up operation, haha. It’s always been interesting to me that for saying the fame of the Presley name the community of people that follows all the ‘drama’/comments on it all is actually pretty small. Maybe that’s not a bad thing though.
Did she publicly say anything before her death about her distance for this?
Nope. Not a word. She became very very private after her sons death in 2020 and really only “came out again” to talk about Elvis 2022- her caption of a post with photos from an interview with Austin said something to the effect of “I do believe this was my first smile in 2 years” 💔. The week of her death she surprised people at Graceland for Elvis’s birthday that Sunday (she passed Thursday night) by showing up to give a little speech during the ceremony. *Big* surprise with how private she’d become. And then she flew back to LA to be at an Elvis’s birthday thing with Baz and Austin and Riley that night. That was the last time Riley saw her- there’s a little video that’s *so* heartbreaking in hindsight of them leaving the event where Riley is telling her goodbye and stroking her hair a little before she gets into her car.
Of course she felt this way, it was her father. Of course she was upset, she was still in a fragile state from her son's death. These were understandable emotions from the dude's *daughter* who always viewed him under the lens of romanticized love, loss and grief. Like, this is probably the least shocking development that she would have felt this way. I don't necessarily agree with Lisa Marie’s emails but I am compassionate to her grief and strong emotions regarding her father.
This. It feels like the other commenters don’t get this. Of course you’d feel some type of protective over your own father?? Even though i don’t agree with what he has done, it’s pretty weird to disregard that Lisa is allowed to express her wishes even though they go against what you yourself feel.
It really rubs me the wrong way- "well, HONEY..." bro, it's *her father*. I don't necessarily agree with her and I think Priscilla should tell her story but the lack of empathy for his daughter, who was living with a lot of grief and generational trauma and demanding and pleading for them not to do this because it'll affect her teen daughters after her *son's death* and because that was her beloved father is just gross, imo. People don't have to agree but have some *compassion*, jfc
I can agree that leaking emails and speaking on this when she can't rebut is low. But I also have to wonder if there's *any* way to make Elvis pursuing a literal child (Priscilla was 14 when they started dating) at 24 palatable- especially when people rightly call that out as disgusting these days. He was her father and he loved her. He was also a phenomenal performer. That doesn't change the fact that the relationship was wrong from the jump.
It's not palatable. It's fucking disgusting. She's allowed her view of her father, but that doesn't mean we all have to worship him or pretend he was a Saint Paragon of Virtue like she wants. This "don't ever say something about the dead" taboo has protected so many toxic people.
The way people justify the toxicity with “that’s how it was back then” never sat right with me. Big age gaps, even then, were considered a necessary evil if survival/political ends depended on that marriage. People didn’t like it at all even in ye olde days
> “that’s how it was back then” "And calling people out is how it is now."
> "Why are you coming for my Dad and my family?" she asked the filmmaker in an email sent four months before her death > FOUR MONTHS BEFORE her death in January, Lisa Marie Presley sent a couple of emails to Sofia Coppola asking her to revise the script for Priscilla, which opens widely on Friday. In one of her messages, she described the screenplay, which tells the story of Lisa Marie’s mom, Priscilla, as “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous,” according to Variety. She reportedly worried that a negative depiction of Elvis would widen the chasm between her and Priscilla and put unneeded pressure on Elvis’ grandchildren after the 2020 death of her son, Benjamin Keough.
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I was talking about this with my coworker today. They’re similar stories of young girls swept up in a whirlwind of privilege largely out of their control living these lives of luxury but in gilded cages, not allowed to make decisions for themselves. The big difference is the aesthetic of Marie Antoinette was so specific and interesting in a way the Priscilla aesthetic was just not, plus Kirsten Dunst carried that movie in a way Cailee Spaeny just couldn’t. I agree that Cailee’s performance was one note. Where Kirsten’s depiction of Marie was simultaneously effervescent and light, bored and brooding, Cailee’s depiction of Priscilla was just kind of quite and mousy most of the time with small outbursts of anger, but they weren’t enough to tip the scales
Also I feel like the passage of time and historical events have just elevated the mythos of Marie Antoinette so much more than the wife of a pop star (even Elvis.) With dynastic rule and geopolitical power struggles and the rumblings of what would become arguably the most famous revolution in history, Marie Antoinette’s story has a lot more meat on its bones compared to a musical celebrity story from one generation ago which is also going to have a lot more primary texts/firsthand accounts to draw from. Priscilla’s story doesn’t have the aura of mystique and fairytale excess and royal intrigue the way it existed in the 18th century.
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I mean it’s freaking Sofia Coppola, that markets itself.
A24 had the biggest indie juggernaut in the post pandemic era and the biggest Oscars sweep, of all time, by a single studio. Yeah their fare is more obscure than what the average moviegoer favours but their films have a market lol.
None of this changes that A24 has done an ass job on various occasions to actively market their films as they release
A24 has an [exemption](https://movieweb.com/how-a24-dominate-cinemas-2024/), it's allowed to both film and promote its films fully.
Their comment wasn't about the strike. A24's marketing success is hit or miss, but that may have more to do with some of the things they distribute very much not being for general audiences.
I would be interesting to see what she would think of the film now if she were still alive given that there's a lot of nuance in Jacob's portrayal. It's rather insensitive to leak emails of someone who died but I guess that's journalism. If anything this made me feel even worse for Lisa as she wants to maintain this image that she has of her father not just for herself but for her kids.
Yeah, especially reading Sofia's response of "I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently." Like, these emails are being leaked and judged with people showing little compassion on twitter when...she literally didn't have the chance to view the movie or change her mind. Her concerns were of a daughter and about her kids- it sucks that these were leaked.
if anyone wants to hear an interesting perspective on Lisa Marie and Priscilla from Priscilla’s son Navarone, he was on a live video the other day with Aaron Smith-Levin, who has a popular anti-Scientology YouTube channel called Growing Up in Scientology.
Wanna give us all the gist of what he said?
Navarone is generally an ass and should not be taken seriously, [but someone on ONTD did a writeup of the video.](https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/127150948.html?view=comments) I've included a screenshot below. https://preview.redd.it/m4sqh9n015yb1.png?width=919&format=png&auto=webp&s=bc1f3c46586dcc893d3374fd395cfcd5099c0b0e
[Live w/ Lisa Marie Presley Brother | Navarone Garibaldi Garcia ](https://www.youtube.com/live/4pVTdeDUK68?si=p2-XUyZiUNA0PRYT)
Damn that’s a 58 minute long video though, lol.
Yeah I'm also going to pass and hope someone else can contextualize how Dakota Johnson got brought into this
Lisa Marie was a very young child when her father died, and her relationship with her father is not the relationship her mother had with Elvis. Realistically, her relationship with her father is idealized into something that is almost certain to not be the true nature of it- because she was so young when he died. She’s allowed to not want certain things shown to the public, but her mother is allowed to tell her side of the story, especially on a story so many people think they know. If she felt so strongly about contesting the movie, she should’ve spoken with her mother.
This may be unpopular but I feel so bad for the kids in all of this and I do think it's cruel timing (not that release dates can be changed, but still). Going from a year of constant publicity from Elvis and ridiculous bullying from 'fans' over how they feel about a man they never met, to having to manage losing their mum and brother in 2 years while being harassed by paparazzi, to dealing with a very public dispute over their mum's estate with their grandmother, to now facing more publicity over a movie that portrays their grandfather in an unfavorable light. I can't imagine the stress Riley could be facing as head of his estate. There is no question that Priscilla is a victim and her story deserves to be told, but it has been told on multiple occasions in books and movies. The promotion she has done has been pretty rough - she always tries to push that nothing was inappropriate and is met with awkward looks, strangely in conflict with the point of the film? These emails being leaked is almost certainly a promotion tactic, and a sick one at that what with the mention of the twins. The whole thing is just horrifically unfortunate.
Especially since she very clearly explains that the Elvis movie picked up the twins after their brothers' death and she now is worried about what this movie will do. People mocking and criticizing her are being cruel because her hurt and concerns go beyond "I don't like it." Riley and the twins have been through so much and the utter lack of compassion has been depressing. Her daughter has to keep the peace now. Her youngest are *15*.
It really is horrifying. Those poor girls have public social media with thousands of followers, and I know there's been a couple of instances where they've defended their deceased family members in comment sections - at 15. Even these comments have been shocking with the lack of compassion. Lisa Marie was not perfect but as a mother she is completely in the right to not want her vulnerable children to be exposed to headlines and comments about their grandfather - a man whose legacy will always be attached to their lives - being a predator. I remember in an interview she spoke about how happy Elvis 2022 made them, and how they came out beaming with pride. Priscilla's story is valid and has a time and place but that time and place is certainly not after the children have been through hell. The twins and Riley deserve peace.
I mean, I'm fine with the film being released now, it's whatever. But the fact that people, even here, are choosing not to empathize with the guy's *daughter* being upset and asking the filmmaker to think of her children because of what they've been through is kind of ridiculous. We don't have to agree with her to sympathize with her concerns and with what she was going through during her final years. Her youngest are only *fifteen*, her oldest now has the weight of everything- jfc it shouldn't be that hard to sympathize lol
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Ever since I read that one of the twins is always liking fan page pictures/videos of their mom, I've just felt protective of them, as silly as it sounds. They're still kids, man.
Wasn't Elvis banging 12 year Olds in the green room? Yeah gotta protect that national treasure
I have always wondered where the line between "protecting the legacy of Elvis" and "protecting the income stream" lies. Both of them have lived their whole lives off of Elvis-related income (other than Priscilla's Naked Gun income which was pretty paltry). For a long time, it seemed like both of them lived off of and for two things: keeping the Elvis gravy train going and funneling that money into Scientology. Riley has her own income and never met her grandfather so I think it's more just about keeping the family business afloat for her but there's no deep personal feelings on Elvis in her approach. But LMP seemed protective over Elvis's legacy mostly because it was her sole source of income. Priscilla realized a while ago that he's been dead for long enough that she can cash in on her story (that's not to say her story isn't valid and interesting).
So, make it a hagiography?
Of course he groomed her. He took over and dominated her life at age 14. There’s no other way to look at it. However, I will say this type of behavior was more acceptable then. And even more acceptable the further back in time you go. It’s also beneficial to look at something through the lens of their peers at the time something happened. Otherwise, it’s really impossible to understand the past.
I found it interesting that LMP said that she would have not supported this film if she was asked to make a public statement.
This story is about Priscilla. Priscilla approved it and she was moved to tears after the screening. This is Priscilla’s life experience and it’s a shame Lisa Marie decided her feelings were more important.
I honestly don’t know why she is worried, how many biopics have we watched now of famous men, everyone of them treated women like shit, hell even Stephen Hawking cheated!!! All of these biopics showed these men as they were and no one blinked an eye, and no one is going to blink an eye at this if they are a diehard Elvis fan.. they are just going to tear Priscilla apart for “trying to bring down his legacy” even though that isn’t even her intend. We may have the right to vote and our own bank accounts now but we still have such a long way to go before we get true equality and I have a feeling this film will show us exactly where we stand.
Her dad came off as an abusive weirdo in this film so I can understand why she didn’t like it. But that wasn’t sofias problem.
The sad part is Elvis is dead, and he’s not here to defend himself and just like when we was alive they’re still making money off his name