Lisa Marie Presley Begged Sofia Coppola to Stop Making Priscilla Before Her Death
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Her mother, on which the film is based, said director Sofia Coppola did “an amazing job” but Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s reaction to Priscilla wasn’t so supportive in the months leading up to her death. The film is based on her mother, Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me.
LMP was born on February 1, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her parents divorced when she was four years old and she was nine years old when Elvis died on August 16, 1977, of a cardiac arrest. Like her father, Lisa Marie was also a singer. She released three albums: 2003’s To Whom It May Concern; 2005’s Now What; and 2012’s Storm and Grace. Her first album reached Gold certification with the Recording Industry Association of America, and reached number five on the Billboard 200 chart.
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Elvis & Me by Priscilla Presley
Elvis & Me by Priscilla Presley
But on January 12, 2023, Elvis’ only child passed away after suffering from suspected cardiac arrest following a “small bowel obstruction” caused by scar tissue that developed after bariatric surgery years ago, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. According to the autopsy report featured in the New York Times, Presley had been complaining of severe abdominal pain on January 12, 2023. Later that day, she was found unresponsive at her home in California and taken to hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest and died that afternoon.
The report also stated that while she had a history of drug abuse, she was sober “for the past few years.” Though, it also noted that Presley had a “history of overmedicating; she was known to forget she had taken her medications and would take them again,” and that “therapeutic levels of oxycodone” were found in her blood. Now, it’s been revealed that Lisa Marie Presley’s reaction to Priscilla was so strong that she begged the director to rethink her portrayal of her legendary father.
How Lisa Marie Presley Reacted to Priscilla
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Months before her death, Lisa Marie Presley penned a letter to the film’s director Sofia Coppola slamming the script as “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous” for its depiction of Elvis and Priscilla‘s early courtship that began in Germany in 1959 when she was 14 and he was 14.
“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative. As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character. I don’t read this and see my mother’s perspective of my father. I read this and see your shockingly vengeful and contemptuous perspective and I don’t understand why?” Presley wrote in one of her messages obtained by Variety, published on November 2, 2023, a few days before the film’s cinematic release.
The letter was sent to Coppola before filming started. “I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly.” She also said that she had spoken to one of her children about the film, who had asked after seeing an announcement about it. “I had to explain that we are going to have to endure another hit in our lives. That there is going to be a movie about her grandfather that is going to try to make him look really, really bad but it’s not true,” she wrote.
“I had to explain that her beloved grandmother is supporting it. These two little girls have been through so much in the past 7 years, enduring my divorce and horrific custody battle and then losing their brother. We’ve all been drowning.”
When asked to comment on the correspondence, Coppola told Variety, via her rep, what she said in her reply to Lisa Marie. “I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honoring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity,” wrote Coppola.
A source with knowledge of the film’s production said the exchange took place on September 2, 2022, “The source said the film is exclusively based on Elvis and Me, and efforts were made to ‘tone down’ some elements of the book regarding the couple’s courtship that would have been shocking to contemporary audiences. Coppola’s goal was to tell a love story, the insider said, with the primary tension of the film being Priscilla’s struggles to adapt to life with a global superstar,” the industry publication reported.
How Priscilla reacted to Priscilla
Priscilla Presley’s reaction to Priscilla was more supportive, however. When the film screened at the Venice Film Festival earlier in 2023, Priscilla was asked what it was like to see her life portrayed in such a way. “It’s very difficult to sit and watch a film about you, about your life, about your love,” Priscilla said, becoming visibly emotional: “Sofia did an amazing job. She did her homework, we spoke a couple of times and I really put everything out for her that I could.”
“It was very difficult for my parents to understand that Elvis would be so interested in me and why,” she said. “And I really do think because I was more of a listener. Elvis would pour his heart out to me in every way in Germany: his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother — which he never, ever got over. And I was the person who really, really sat there to listen and to comfort him. That was really our connection. Even though I was 14, I was actually a little bit older in life — not in numbers. That was the attraction. People think, ‘Oh, it was sex.’ No, it wasn’t. I never had sex with him. He was very kind, very soft, very loving, but he also respected the fact I was only 14 years old. We were more in line in thought, and that was our relationship.”
She added, “I didn’t know why he put so much trust in me, but he did. And I never, ever, ever told anyone that I was seeing him, and that was another issue that he loved, is the fact that I never gave him up in any way. I never told anyone at school that I was seeing him. So, we built a relationship and then our relationship went on until I left. And it wasn’t because I didn’t love him — he was the love of my life. It was the lifestyle that was so difficult for me, and I think any woman can relate to that. But it didn’t mar our relationship, we still remained very close. And of course, we had our daughter, and I made sure that he saw her all the time. It was like we never left each other.”
How Lisa Marie Presley reacted to Elvis
Lisa Marie Presley was full of praise for Baz Luhrmann’s depiction of her father in his blockbuster Elvis, released in June 2022. In a long post to Instagram, LMP shared:
“I haven’t posted in quite some time because there really isn’t much to say, as I am and will forever be mourning the loss of my son. Navigating through this hideous grief that absolutely destroyed and shattered my heart and my soul into almost nothing has swallowed me whole. Not much else aside from my other 3 children gets my time and attention anymore.
However, that being said, I do want to take a moment to let you know that I have seen Baz Luhrmann’s movie “Elvis” twice now, and let me tell you that it is nothing short of spectacular. Absolutely exquisite. Austin Butler channeled and embodied my father’s heart and soul beautifully. In my humble opinion, his performance is unprecedented and FINALLY done accurately and respectfully. (If he doesn’t get an Oscar for this, I will eat my own foot, haha.)
You can feel and witness Baz’s pure love, care, and respect for my father throughout this beautiful film, and it is finally something that myself and my children and their children can be proud of forever. What moved me to tears as well was watching Riley and Harper, and Finley afterwards, all 3 visibly overwhelmed in the best way possible way, and so filled with pride about their grandfather and his legacy in a way that I have not previously experienced.
It breaks my heart that my son isn’t here to see it. He would have absolutely loved it as well. I can’t tell you enough how much I love this film and I hope you love it too. Everyone involved poured their hearts and souls into it, which is evidenced in their performances. Baz, your utter genius combined with your love and respect for my father and this project is just so beautiful and so inspiring. I know I’m being repetitive, but I don’t care, Thank you for setting the record straight in such a deeply profound and artistic way.”
Elvis & Me by Priscilla Presley
Elvis & Me by Priscilla Presley
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