Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi star as Priscilla and Elvis Presley in the acclaimed new movie.

By Patrick Cremona

Published: Wednesday, 03 January 2024 at 17:44 PM

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For the second time in two years, a film is currently playing in UK cinemas that prominently features the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

But Priscilla – which originally debuted at last year’s Venice Film Festival – is a very different proposition from Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated 2022 biopic Elvis.

Whereas Elvis was a glitzy, hyperactive portrait of the titular singer’s rise and fall, Sofia Coppola’s new film is a more subdued affair, focusing on the relationship between Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny) and Elvis (Jacob Elordi) from the perspective of the former.

The film is based on Priscilla’s own 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, and star Spaeny detailed during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com how she had extensive discussions with the pop culture icon.

“So much gets answered when you’re just sitting right in front of the woman herself,” she said. “The way she presents herself, the way she talks, how she goes about spending this time with me. It answered 1,000 questions just to be able to look her in the eye.”

She added: “I felt really grateful that she was open to doing that with me, and watching her eyes light up, like she was right in that moment with him or telling these inside jokes that they had together, the specific memories that they shared – it was such a gift to have.”

The film’s release hasn’t been without controversy – with the late Lisa-Marie Presley having described the initial script as “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous”, and explaining that she didn’t “see any of my father in this character”, as reported by Variety.

So, just how accurate is the film? Read on for everything you need to know.

Priscilla true story: How accurate is the film?

Based on the available sources, it appears that the film is a broadly accurate though naturally incomplete account of Elvis and Priscilla’s relationship from their first meeting in 1959 – when Priscilla was just 14 – to their divorce in 1973.

Coppola and Spaeny were both in contact with Priscilla during production to ensure this accuracy, although there are a couple of instances where some dramatic licence has been taken, as is customary for Hollywood retellings of true stories.

Many of the scenes depicting Elvis’s controlling and aggressive nature towards Priscilla in the film are taken directly from the latter’s personal account.

For example, according to Priscilla’s memoir, she did once fall into a coma for two days after taking sleeping pills given to her by Elvis, who did throw a chair at her in a fit of rage, while she also claimed in her account that her husband exerted great control over the way she dressed and expressed herself and that he forbade her from working.

A scene in which Priscilla tells Elvis she is leaving him is taken practically word for word from Priscilla’s memoir, and therefore seems likely to be a faithful reenactment of the discussion as it happened, or at least as Priscilla remembers it.

As has been well documented, it’s true, too, that Priscilla was just 14 when she met Elvis – who was 10 years her senior – and Coppola explained during an interview with Rolling Stone how it was “tricky” to portray this meeting sensitively.

Meanwhile, as reported by Time, Priscilla asserted during a Venice Film Festival press conference that “I never had sex with him [when I was underage]” and that he “respected the fact I was only 14 years old”.

Some smaller details in the film are also true, including the fact that Priscilla gave birth to Lisa Marie in a full face of make-up after applying her signature double lashes before going to hospital.

One or two details are slightly changed – for example, Elvis actually gifted Priscilla with her dog Honey well before she arrived at Graceland – but all in all, the film is faithful to Priscilla’s account of the relationship.

“We tried to put that truth on screen and let people decide themselves how they felt about it,” Spaeny said during her interview with RadioTimes.com.

And she added: “[Priscilla] wanted to make sure that we showed the love between them, because it was there. As well as the pain she went through, the love was real, and it was strong.

“I think, overall, she looks back fondly at those times in her life and the memories she made. But then she had to make a choice to lead a life of her own.”