Cailee Spaeny insists Elvis Presley’s relationship with young wife Priscilla was ‘nuanced human story’
In the wake of attacks on Elvis for “grooming” his young wife Priscilla, actress Cailee Spaeny says her new biopic on the pair’s controversial relationship shows it is a “human story” packed with “nuance”.
Cailee Spaeny doesn’t want Elvis Presley’s relationship with his wife Priscilla to be seen as grooming as she thinks it is a “human story” with “nuances”.
The 25-year-old actress stars in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Priscilla’ film as the King of Rock ’n’ Roll’s partner alongside ‘Euphoria’ star Jacob Elordi, 26, as Elvis, who was 24 when he met a 14-year-old Priscilla in 1959.
Cailee told Page Six: “I think what we were trying to do (with the movie) is put a human story that is nuanced and complicated on screen.
“And I think, you know, it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of space for those complicated stories and to get to tell that through Priscilla’s life.”
Elvis and Priscilla embarked on a relationship that saw her move to the singer’s Graceland estate in 1963 while still in high school.
They married in 1967 weeks before her 22nd birthday, and she gave birth to their only child, Lisa Marie Presley, in 1968.
Cailee added bringing the relationship to the big screen was “exciting” so viewers could “decide how they feel about it” themselves.
‘Priscilla’ is based on the 1985 memoir ‘Elvis and Me’, with Sofia Coppola, 52, writing, directing and producing the film.
Private emails were leaked from Lisa Marie – who died in January aged 54 when she suffered a double heart attack and bowel obstruction – to Sofia ahead of its release on 3 November.
In the messages, Lisa pleaded with the filmmaker to reconsider her portrayal of her dad, saying: “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?”
She added in the emails, written four months before her death: “I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly.”
