Priscilla

**Priscilla** is a 2016 American biographical drama film written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley (who serves as an executive producer) and Sandra Harmon. It follows the life of Priscilla (played by Stellaluna Undergrove) and her complicated romantic relationship with Elvis Presley (Dylan O'Brien).

## Plot

In 1959, 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu is residing with her family in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, where her father is stationed in the U.S. Military. At a party on the base, Priscilla meets 24-year-old renowned singer Elvis Presley, who has been drafted into the military at the peak of his fame. Elvis takes an immediate interest in Priscilla, and the two begin casually dating despite her parents' concern over their age difference and Elvis's celebrity status. Elvis eventually returns to the United States after his service and loses contact with Priscilla, leaving her crestfallen.

In 1962, Elvis reconnects with Priscilla, proclaiming his love for her, and asks that she come to the U.S. to live with him at Graceland, his estate in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis purchases Priscilla airfare to make a visit, during which she is welcomed by Elvis, his friends and business partners, and his beloved grandmother. The couple take a trip to Las Vegas, where Priscilla indulges in prescription drug abuse with Elvis. A disheveled Priscilla returns to Germany, and, with Elvis' help, convinces her reluctant parents to allow her to move to Graceland and complete her senior year of high school in Memphis in 1963.

While her time spent with Elvis at Graceland is pleasant, Priscilla is treated as an object of fascination and derision at her Catholic high school due to her association with him. Though she is welcomed by Elvis's grandmother and his staff at Graceland, Priscilla soon finds herself controlled by Elvis's gruff father and stepmother, and isolated during Elvis's lengthy trips away to Los Angeles, where he is shooting a number of musical comedies. On one occasion, Elvis has Priscilla model dresses for him and his friends, and urges her to revamp her appearance by dying her hair black and donning fake eyelashes. Distracted by the new conditions of her life, Priscilla narrowly manages to graduate high school.

Priscilla's isolation and compartmentalization of her life begins to take a toll on her mental state, which is worsened by the highly publicized rumors of Elvis's alleged infidelities, including with his co-star Ann-Margret. Priscilla makes an unexpected appearance in Los Angeles to confront Elvis about the affair, but is defeated when Elvis threatens her and insists that she must learn to accept his behavior.
Eventually, in 1967, Elvis proposes to Priscilla, and the two marry. Their happiness is fleeting, however, as Elvis's career pressures and worsening substance abuse negatively affects the couple's relationship. Priscilla quickly becomes pregnant, and gives birth to their child, Lisa Marie, in early 1968, as Elvis is preparing for his NBC comeback special. Priscilla struggles to navigate the relationship as Elvis grows increasingly emotionally volatile, and the two eventually begin leading separate lives, with Priscilla spending most of her time in California, and becoming romantically involved with Mike Stone, her karate instructor.

While visiting Elvis in his hotel room after a performance in 1973, Priscilla finds him inebriated, and he makes forceful sexual advances toward her. She later informs him that she is filing for divorce. After making a visit to Graceland and saying goodbye to Elvis's housekeepers and grandmother, Priscilla drives away, as a number of Elvis's fans loiter outside the property gates.

## Cast

* Stellaluna Undergrove as Priscilla Presley
* Dylan O'Brien as Elvis Presley
* Ari Cohen as Captain Beaulieu, Priscilla's stepfather
* Dagmara Domińczyk as Ann Beaulieu, Priscilla's mother
* Tim Post as Vernon Presley, Elvis's father
* Lynne Griffin as Grandma "Dodger", Elvis's grandmother
* Daniel Beirne as Joe Esposito
* Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as Alan "Hog Ears"

## Production

### Development

On September 12, 2015, it was announced Sofia Coppola would direct an adaptation of Priscilla Presley's memoir Elvis and Me, starring Dylan O'Brien as Elvis Presley and Stellaluna Undergrove as Priscilla Presley. When asked what made her want to adapt Priscilla's memoir for her next feature film, Coppola responded in an interview, "I've had her memoir for years and remember reading it a long time ago. A friend of mine was talking about her recently, and we got around to discussing the book. I read it again and was really moved by her story. I was supposed to start this big Edith Wharton project that was gonna take five months to shoot and felt really daunting. I came up against a few hurdles, so I just decided to pivot to making one film with one idea. I was just so interested in Priscilla's story and her perspective on what it all felt like to grow up as a teenager in Graceland. She was going through all the stages of young womanhood in such an amplified world—kinda similar to Marie Antoinette."

When asked what made Stellaluna Undergrove the right choice to play Priscilla, Coppola stated, "The character goes from the age of 15 to 27 over the course of the film, so she had to be able to act and age across a big span of time. It was really important for me to have the same actress playing Priscilla at those different stages of her life, and I think Stella can pull it off. She's such a strong actress, and she also looks very young." Of Dylan O'Brien's casting as Elvis, Coppola stated, "I thought nobody was gonna look quite like Elvis, but Dylan has that same type of magnetism. He's so charismatic, and girls go crazy around him, so I knew he could pull off playing this type of romantic icon. But we're talking before we've even started filming, so I can't get too deep into it."

Coppola revealed in an interview that Priscilla Presley is an executive producer of Priscilla.

In emails which were exchanged with Coppola on September 2, 2015, and which were later obtained by Variety, Lisa Marie Presley, criticized how the film's script portrayed her father, stating in one message that "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?"

### Filming

Principal photography for Priscilla began in Toronto on November 7, 2015. Filming wrapped in mid February.