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Even in an age where most movies feel designed to pander to large fandoms, some movies surprise you. Priscilla director Sofia Coppola said she didn’t create her film to appeal to Elvis Presley fans. She also revealed how she tried to portray Elvis and Priscilla — and even compared Priscilla to Marie Antoinette.

‘Priscilla’ director Sofia Coppola said she didn’t want to villainize Elvis Presley

According to a 2023 interview with the Financial Times, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll‘s estate disallowed Coppola from using any of the singer’s music in the film. The estate issued a statement decrying the film. Coppola was reportedly amused by this turn of events.

“The Elvis estate is not happy,” she said. “I remember Priscilla’s manager saying, ‘The Elvis fans are not going to like certain things.’ And I was like, ‘I’m not making it for them.'”

Coppola, however, wasn’t trying to portray the King in a completely unsympathetic light. “I didn’t want to villainize him,” said Coppola. “It was the most non-Elvis movie about Elvis. But I didn’t want [the film] to be about a drug addict. I like to leave things to the imagination. It’s just not my style to be in your face.”

The director said Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley came from a different time

Coppola explained how she approached making a film about Priscilla. “I just put myself totally in her perspective and tried to make a film about what if you were her,” she said. “I didn’t think too much about all the different perspectives.” Coppola acknowledged that Priscilla and Elvis came from a different cultural era, but the world hasn’t changed in certain ways. She compared Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis to a modern fan getting to go on a vacation with Harry Styles.

“I just want to experience someone else’s world for that moment,” added Coppola. “That’s all I’m trying to do. When I was starting out [as a director] my dad gave me this encyclopedia of poetry. And he was like, ‘Film is poetry.’ It doesn’t have to explain. Poetry is just a feeling. And I just want to feel.”

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Elvis and Priscilla Presley 1st Met When a Frankie Avalon Song Was Playing

Why Sofia Coppola compared Priscilla Presley to Marie Antoinette

Before Priscilla, Coppola made another biopic called Marie Antoinette, a sometimes-anachronistic portrayal of the titular queen starring Kirsten Dunst. During a 2022 interview with Vogue, the director said Priscilla and Marie Antoinette were similar because they both went through adolescence in “an amplified world.” I guess Graceland really could be seen as the 1960s equivalent of the Palace of Versailles, but was the “Can’t Help Falling in Love” singer truly similar to the beheaded Louis XVI?

Coppola also contrasted her film with Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. She never felt like she was covering the same ground as Luhrmann because Priscilla is a minor figure in his film. In the director’s opinion, Luhrmann gave her the space to dive really deep into Priscilla’s life story.

Coppola’s Priscilla wasn’t made for Elvis fans but some Elvis fans are bound to love it anyway.

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