Sofia Coppola never wanted Elvis to be the villain in ‘Priscilla’
The latest Sofia Coppola movie, Priscilla, details the relationship between Elvis Presley and his former wife, Priscilla Presley, documenting their first meeting when the latter was just 15 years old.
Despite the movie addressing the age gap throughout the film, Coppola has now admitted that she did not want to paint the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ as the villain in the story.
“It definitely is looking at this mythic couple and showing his human side, and I tried to approach it with sensitivity and not be judgmental,” Coppola recently told NME. “I never wanted him to be a villain.”
The director admitted, though, that her film does not necessarily paint the iconic singer in the best light, noting, “It definitely doesn’t keep him on a pedestal.”
“It’s not about him as a performer. It’s him in private,” Coppola added. “So I feel like it’s a totally different side of the same story, which I think makes it even more interesting that people have just been thinking about the story.”
In a four-star review of Priscilla, Far Out wrote, “As is often the case with Coppola’s films, Priscilla once again puts forth the idea that wealth and aspiration will always play second fiddle to what human beings genuinely want (regardless of their levels of affluence).”
The review continued, “All Priscilla wanted was to be loved and cared for, to live her own life in partnership with her husband, and what she got was a drug-addicted, self-obsessed, cultural phenomenon – a phenomenon that she would never entirely be able to remove herself from.”
Watch the trailer for Priscilla below.
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