By Mark Gray
5:25pm PST, Nov 6, 2023
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"Priscilla" is largely based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir "Elvis and Me." Both the book and the movie highlight Priscilla's courtship with Elvis Presley, which kicked off when she was 14 and the King of Rock and Roll was 24.
Lisa Marie Presley was clearly not happy with the direction of the film.
"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?" Lisa wrote to director Sofia Coppola.
Priscilla, who was married to Elvis from 1967 to 1973, is credited as an executive producer on the film.
"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," Lisa Marie added.
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"Priscilla" director Sofia Coppola replied to Lisa Marie Presley, "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."
The two women exchanged emails in September 2022, just weeks before the film went into production.
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In her emails to filmmaker Sofia Coppola — who's "The Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola's daughter — Lisa Marie Presley argued that her mother, Priscilla Presley, wasn't thinking about her marriage and courtship with Elvis Presley in the context of modern-day sensibilities about age-mismatched romances.
"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 in her emails, according t Variety. "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."
Lisa Marie went on to reference Sofia's own famous family: "I would think of all people that you would understand how this would feel. Why are you coming for my Dad and my family?" she wrote.
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Lisa Marie Presley went on to share a story about one of her twin daughters, Harper Lockwood, who was made aware of the "Priscilla" film.
"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," Lisa Marie wrote to filmmaker Sofia Coppola. "I had to explain that her beloved grandmother is supporting it. These two little girls have been through so much in the past seven years, enduring my divorce and horrific custody battle and then losing their brother. We've all been drowning."
On Jan. 12, 2023, Lisa Marie Presley died at 54 after going into cardiac arrest.
