The Movie "Priscilla" Is Now Out, So Here's How It Re-Creates Some Iconic Moments Between Priscilla And Elvis Presley
Sofia Coppola's latest movie, a biopic of Priscilla Presley starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, is out now! Naturally, after viewing a limited screening at 11 a.m. with two other men who also sat alone, I went down quite the Google rabbit hole.
My two cents, as someone who is neither a historian nor a film critic, is that biopics don't need to go for shot-for-shot likeness to successfully convey the life it's depicting. This isn't to say that Priscilla isn't loyal to Priscilla's own retelling of their relationship — the real Priscilla's story is even quoted in the trailer — but that it is a wholly beautiful and evocative movie that sidesteps the "I could have just read the Wikipedia page" vibe of some other notable biopics.
That being said, for those whose interest in the historical relationship has been piqued, here are some side-by-sides of Priscilla next to the people themselves:
To begin with, here's Priscilla as we meet her in the movie at age 14. There aren't any publicly available photos of Priscilla at this age, but there is this one of her at age 16. It's worth mentioning that the necklace she wore is re-created in the movie itself.
"People always said I was the prettiest girl in school, but I never felt that way," Priscilla later said of her early teen years.
During their first encounters, Elvis was 24 (I've edited this photo of Jacob to be a little brighter, for the purposes of this post). Here's the real Elvis a year younger than that, when he first started his military service.
Priscilla later wrote of meeting Elvis, "I spotted Elvis immediately. He was handsomer than he appeared in films, younger and more vulnerable looking with his GI haircut. He was in civilian clothes, a bright red sweater and tan slacks, and he was sitting with one leg swung over the arm of a large overstuffed chair, with a cigar dangling from his lips."
Then we have the moment where Elvis left West Germany to return to the US, which was actually captured by photographers.
"I dreaded this day very much because I didn’t know if I would ever see him again,” Priscilla later said of the moment. "One request that he asked was that I not be teary-eyed."
A crucial point of the movie is when Priscilla, at the behest of Elvis, changes her look to include more eyeliner and darker hair. Here's the real-life Priscilla in 1963, traveling with the dog that Elvis bought her.
Priscilla later said of her early relationship with Elvis, "I found myself deeply involved with Elvis. Something in his Southern upbringing had taught him that the 'right' girl was to be saved for marriage. I was that girl. At the same time, he molded me into his woman. I wore the clothes, hairstyle, and makeup of his careful choosing,"
Of course, we have to mention the wedding itself. The ceremony happened in a suite at the Las Vegas Aladdin in 1967, followed by a press conference (which is where the enormous cake was).
Priscilla actually had to go in disguise to find her wedding dress so she wouldn't be recognized, and later said of it, "It wasn’t extravagant, it wasn’t extreme — it was simple and, to me, beautiful."
Nine months to the day after their wedding, Lisa Marie was born. Priscilla was indeed in full glam when she left the hospital in Memphis.
After realizing she was in labor, Priscilla did actually take the time to fix her hair and makeup. She wrote of the labor itself in her memoir, "The man in the hospital room was the man I loved, and will always love. He didn’t have to try to be strong and decisive or sexy, he wasn’t afraid to show his warmth or vulnerability.”
The film also depicts Elvis leaving his family in Graceland to go on tour. While there isn't an exact reference photo available, it certainly suggests the style the family had in the late '60s.
"Living at Graceland was difficult but I knew when I got married that he was going to have his guys around all the time. I could not domesticate Elvis, and I accepted that. He didn't really have that much to do with the practical stuff but I took naturally to becoming a mother," Priscilla said in 2012 of Elvis's parenting.
Finally, the film also re-creates a photo shoot the couple did in real life (and that Jacob re-created for Halloween one year with his ex, Kaia Gerber, who is currently dating Elvis actor Austin Butler). It shows both of their style evolutions, as depicted in this other image from 1970.
And that's all we have, until the movie comes out digitally and I can scrub my way through it!
