Lisa Marie Presley was not happy with Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla film — or the script’s depiction of father Elvis Presley — before her death.
“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative,” Lisa Marie wrote in a 2022 email to Coppola, 52, which was obtained by Variety on Thursday, November 2. “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?”
In a second email, Lisa Marie told the director that she would “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” if Coppola went ahead with the project. The messages were sent four months before Lisa Marie died in January after suffering a fatal cardiac arrest at the age of 54, according to the outlet.
Priscilla — which is written, directed and produced by Coppola and stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi — tells the story of Elvis and Priscilla Presley’s romance, which began when they were 24 and 14, respectively. The film pulls inspiration from Priscilla’s own 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, recounting the twosome’s — at times tumultuous — relationship from her young perspective.
The movie was an official selection of this year’s Venice Film Festival earlier this year, garnering critical praise and earning Spaeny, 25, a best actress prize.
When it comes to how Priscilla, 85, feels about the film, she told audiences in Venice that Coppola “did an amazing job” and “really put everything out for her that I could.” Lisa Marie, however, shared in her emails that she feared her mother “isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out.”
“I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy,” she wrote. “I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
Lisa Marie praised Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 Elvis biopic, which she called “a break from suffering and a ray of light that hit us last year” that made 15-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood “so proud and honored to be his granddaughters.” (Lisa Marie shared Harper and Finley with ex-husband Michael Lockwood. She was also mom to daughter Riley and son Benjamin, whom she shared with ex Danny Keough.)
“It made them feel blessed for a moment and less cursed in life,” she said. “It made us all so proud because it was a true depiction of who he really was.”
Lisa Marie noted that Harper was sent a trade announcement about Priscilla going into production — and that her family was going to “have to endure another hit” in their lives from a “movie about her grandfather that is going to try to make him look really, really bad but it’s not true.”
“I had to explain that her beloved grandmother is supporting it,” she continued. “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.”
She added that she did not understand Coppola’s “need to attempt to take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film” by ” using the excuse” of telling her mother’s story from Coppola’s “very dark and jaded reality.”
Coppola, for her part, revealed how she responded to Lisa Marie’s claims through a statement to Variety from her rep on Thursday. “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,” she wrote, per the outlet.
While Lisa Marie noted in her emails that Coppola should “understand” how she feels due to her own famous family — she is the daughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola — Sofia previously shared that her connection to the material is actually what inspired make Priscilla in the first place.
“I was struck by how much I connected with it emotionally. I thought it was just going to be a fun adventure, and I was surprised by how relatable her story was,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in August. “And I always like themes about finding one’s identity and teenage girls growing into adulthood.”
Sofia added that coming of age in the shadow of a public figure felt relatable to her own experience. “I know from my family what it’s like to be inside a show business family. I know that growing up, people are looking at you in a different way.” she said.
