Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley in a wedding dress

A24/YouTube

The trailer for Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’ is sparking age gap discourse again

But many fans trust Coppola to depict the story accurately.

 

Olivia Hebert

Internet Culture

Posted on Jun 21, 2023   Updated on Jun 21, 2023, 5:09 pm CDT

A teaser was just released for Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, a biopic focusing on Priscilla Presley based on the memoir Elvis and Me, which Priscilla co-wrote with Sandra Harmon.

The film will star Cailee Spaeny (Mare of Easttown) as titular Priscilla, and Jacob Elordi (Euphoria) as the King of Rock ‘N Roll himself, Elvis Presley.

Harboring all of the visual flourishes of a Sofia Coppola film, Priscilla may look sumptuous but also appears committed to telling the unvarnished truth of Priscilla’s love story with Elvis. Fans are excited to see the Virgin Suicides director’s take on their May-December relationship. Priscilla was a teenager when she met Elvis, who was 24 years old at the time.

Some fans trust that Coppola won’t brush over that fact.

“leave it sofia coppola not to romanticise the grooming of a minor in broad daylight, this is gonna
be goooooood,” Twitter user @fionappledylan commented.

While others on Twitter tried to criticize Coppola for romanticizing the relationship before the film
even comes out.

“oh good ‘priscilla was FOURTEEN, elvis was TWENTY FOUR”‘discourse has begun,” @woahitsjuanito wrote. “damn i wonder how sofia coppola, a filmmaker who has been making movies about both the appeal and the skewed power dynamics in various questionable relationships her whole career, will approach this.”

Priscilla Presley, now 78, is producing the film and has acknowledged that the relationship between her and the King was a cause for concern for her parents at the time. Priscilla wrote in a 1985 essay for People, “My parents became confused and bewildered by our relationship.”

Coppola is widely known for her nuanced perspective rather than a black-and-white outlook, which will suit Priscilla’s story. Hopefully, the film will acknowledge the power imbalance between Elvis and her while also illustrating the love shared between them. The film will likely be both melancholy and glamorous in true Coppola fashion.

“I pray Sofia Coppola never stops making these effervescently styled, perfumed movies
about princesses in their castles,” wrote @isaacfeldberg.

In her films, Coppola strives to capture the psyches of her female protagonists and some Twitter users are excited to see her latest work. “sofia coppola knows how to catch a woman lost in her thoughts and it’s very special to me,” @kenzvanunu wrote.

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*First Published: Jun 21, 2023, 4:53 pm CDT