After premiering at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 4th, Priscilla was released into theaters on October 27th of this year. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, Priscilla walks viewers through the complex relationship between Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu. 

The movie starts at the beginning of their romance when Priscilla, portrayed by Caliee Spaeny, is only fourteen years old and meets Elvis, portrayed by Jacob Elordi, in Germany. The two hit it off at a party and slowly started to become fond of each other. The romance started off simple. However, Coppola wanted to capture the couple’s strange romance, a lot of which was kept behind the scenes at the time. 

In order to capture the true and raw relationship the two shared, Coppola sat down with Pricsilla and interviewed her about their relationship and what it was like for Pricsilla. One of the biggest things to address in their relationship was the age gap. Elvis was ten years older than Priscilla. So while she was growing up and navigating the teenage years of her life, Elvis was grown up and rising in fame. Coppola tried to highlight the complexity of growing up with a celebrity when she was only a teenager and how that was such a big shift in Pricsilla’s life. 

Another component Coppola wanted to highlight was the control Elvis had over Pricsilla’s appearance. Priscilla explained that Elvis treated her almost as a doll and that her appearance was always a big focus. There is a scene in the movie where Elvis gives Priscilla a makeover and she says, “I don’t know if I like it.” Elvis then gets very aggressive and throws something to the side of Priscilla’s head after he says, “you don’t know if you like it?” Throughout the movie, Coppola also does a good job at showing the evolution of Priscilla’s appearance. The longer she is a part of Elvis’s life, the more influence you can see he has on her appearance. 

The casting of the characters was also a key role to the telling of their relationship. Coppola explains that she thought she was going to have a hard time casting someone who could play Priscilla from age 14 to 28. However, Coppola was confident that Caliee Spaeny could pull off the different ages of Priscilla, even though she is 25. 

Overall, there were a lot of details that went into the movie Priscilla and Coppola tried to capture that as best as she could. The movie tells a story that was kept relatively private and exposes some of the secrets of their relationship.