Elvis Sends Sparks — Then Chairs — Flying Toward Priscilla Presley in Chilling ‘Priscilla’ Trailer

Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s relationship has been captured and recaptured in media for decades. Across its depictions, the story remains standard: he was the king, and she was his wife. In the first full-length trailer for Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir “Elvis and Me,” Graceland is more of a prison than a royal castle. Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) fell for Elvis (Jacob Elordi), a decade her senior, as a young teenage girl, and he sent sparks flying — but soon enough, it was chairs soaring through the air in their place as their relationship grew more tumultuous and the tactics of his grooming began to fail.

“Just what is the intent here, Mr. Presley?” Priscilla’s father asks the music star in the clip. “You’ve got women throwing themselves at you. Why my daughter?” Priscilla is a mere 14 years old to Elvis’ 24 when they first meet. Earlier in the trailer, a man orchestrating their first encounter simply asks her: “Do you like Elvis Presley?” And, of course, she does. He comes to like her, too. “Well sir, I happen to be very fond of your daughter,” he tells her father. “She’s much more mature than her age.”

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That fondness soon sours, however, as the veiled excuse of maturity begins to fall and Priscilla’s age starts to show. During a game of Blackjack, the teenager explodes with excitement, yelling out “21!” and thinking she won big before Elvis corrects her: “It’s 22.” It’s a clear parallel to their relationship, which soon begins to dissolve into physical and emotional torture as the King attempts to maintain control over her queen as she comes into her own authority as a young woman.

Elvis instructs Priscilla to darken her hair and wear more eye makeup — crafting her in his own image — but she doesn’t warm to it immediately. In the studio, she doesn’t hold back on voicing her opinion, particularly her disinterest, in whatever is being previewed for her. But there’s only so much she can push back as she falls into the role of a mother at home while her husband is off performing for crowds of millions of women who would do anything to have him — especially when he’s just as interested in exploring his options.

“Well I need a woman who understands that things like this might happen,” Elvis tells Priscilla in the trailer. “Are you gonna be here or not?” His height towers over her, and she’s never looked younger. The final line she utters as the preview concludes captures Coppola’s vision completely: “I want a life of my own.”

Priscilla will be released on Nov. 3 via A24.

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