Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi and ‘Priscilla’ team discuss New York Film Festival’s centerpiece selection [WATCH]

“We only shot this film in 30 days and just sort of flying by the seat of our pants,” explained actress Cailee Spaeny about the experience of playing Priscilla Presley in director Sofia Coppola‘s biographical film “Priscilla,” which was the centerpiece selection for the 61st New York Film Festival in 2023. Above, watch her entire NYFF press conference with co-star Jacob Elordi, costumer designer Stacey Battat, production designer Tamara Deverell and producer Youree Henley.

SEE‘Priscilla’ could propel Cailee Spaeny to the Oscars

Based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me,” “Priscilla” starts at the very beginning of her relationship with Elvis Presley (Elordi), who began to pursue her when she was 14 and he was in his 20s. It traces their lives together over many tumultuous years. It was important to “map out” Priscilla’s arc “before we went into the filming process,” and then “you just sort of had to cross your fingers and hope that your homework really comes through.” It was a challenge “keeping my head on straight on where I was” because “in the morning I’d be pregnant and then after lunch I’d be 14-years-old.”

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Because Elvis is such a public figure, Elordi had an “abundance of information” at his disposal. That “doesn’t make it easy, but it gives you this kind of universe of information to draw from.” But Elordi and Coppola wanted to avoid a strict impersonation of the man and instead find “the essence of this person. And the biggest thing for me was trying to identify and find where the human being was under all the glitz and the gold and the voice.” At times he and Spaeny tried to approach the film as “a Sophia Coppola marriage drama completely separate from Elvis and Priscilla.”

Before coming to NYFF61, “Priscilla” had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. It will be released by A24 on November 3.

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