Priscilla Trivia | 50 facts about the movie

Priscilla is a biographical drama film written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the memoir “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley.

Let’s find out more about the movie!

1. Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film.
2. It was written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola.
3. The movie was based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley and Sandra Harmon.
4. Priscilla Presley serves as an executive producer.
5. It follows the life of Priscilla (played by Cailee Spaeny) and her complicated romantic relationship with Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi).
6. Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2023.
7. It was released in the United States by A24 in select theaters on October 27, 2023, before expanding wide on November 3.
8. It received generally favorable reviews from critics.
9. Elvis Presley Enterprises declined both their approval for Sofia Coppola’s film and their permission to use Elvis Presley’s songs in the film.
10. Coppola then took to creative alternatives, including contemporary music by her husband’s band, Phoenix, and cover versions of songs from the film’s era.
11. A month before filming began, Lisa Marie Presley reached out to director Sofia Coppola with concerns about the “shockingly vengeful and contemptuous” script. “My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative,” she wrote. “As his daughter, I don’t read this and see any of my father in this character.”
12. She went on to tell Coppola she would speak out against the film after its release. “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.” Unfortunately, Presley died four months later.
13. In a 2023 interview with Vogue, Sofia Coppola spoke about her approach to depicting Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley’s relationship: “I think it would’ve been easy to make a much darker movie, especially because seeing something unfold onscreen can be so much more visceral than reading it. But I didn’t want the darker side of their relationship to completely overshadow the film, so it was a matter of trying to show the reality. It was important to Priscilla that it was still her love story and to show Elvis as a real human being instead of some two-dimensional villain. I just wanted to show her point of view and leave it to the audience to come to their own conclusions about this relationship. But it was a matter of finding some balance because I don’t want the film to seem like it’s condoning certain things, but I also wanna portray Priscilla’s experience as she says it was. It was important to me for her to feel good about the film, and that it felt truthful to her experience and how she told it.”
14. According to an interview with The Guardian in March 2023, director Sofia Coppola had to cut a week’s worth of scenes from the script after some of the film’s financing dropped out shortly before shooting was due to begin.
15. The film is director Sofia Coppola’s second digitally shot film after The Bling Ring (2013). All her other projects are shot on 35mm and 16mm. In this case, the low budget was a partial factor.
16. Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley have a ten-year age difference. However, Jacob Elordi, who portrays Elvis in this film, is only one year older than Cailee Spaeny, who portrays Priscilla in this film.
17. Shot in 30 days.
18. Jacob Elordi stated, before accepting the role, he was only aware of Elvis Presley through references made to him in Lilo & Stitch (2002).
19. To prepare for the role of Elvis Presley, Jacob Elordi ate a pound of bacon every day. He added that he was fortunate that at 6’5 the weight he gained from that was not obvious.
20. Director Sofia Coppola’s cousin, actor Nicolas Cage, is Priscilla Presley’s ex-son-in-law.
21. Filming took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
22. Jacob Elordi, who portrays Elvis Presley in this film, is 6’5. Elvis was actually 6’0.
23. The film received a seven-minute standing ovation at its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival 2023.
24. The Centerpiece selection for the 61st New York Film Festival.
25. The film was released a year and five months after Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (2022).
26. Coincidentally, the film’s November 3, 2023 release date falls on the death anniversary of Priscilla Presley’s father, naval airman James Frederick Wagner.
27. Priscilla shows one reference to The Virgin Suicides (Masterpiece) when Elvis tells Priscilla s dad “my intentions towards are honourable” to convince him to let her move with him to Memphis, almost word by word what Trip Fontain say to Mr Lisbon in order to convince him to let Lux to be his date at their highschool prom.
28. The film is the first film that stars Jacob Elordi, which was released in 2023. The second film is Saltburn (2023).
29. This movie was based on a true story.
30. Actress Cailee Spaney who plays. Priscilla Presley in this film is American whilst Jacob Elordi who plays Elvis Presley is Australian. In Baz Lurhmans 2022 film Elvis, Austin Butler who plays the role of Elvis Presley is American. Whilst on the other hand, Olivia DeJonge who plays Priscilla Presley is Australian.
31. “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton, which plays towards the ending, some part, a nod to the fact that Elvis reached out to Dolly in order to record it himself. Parton refused due to Elvis’ manager, “Colonel” Tom Parker, getting involved and setting unreasonable demands. She was devastated after the fact because she was initially willing to allow Elvis to record the song. This is a nod to some unreasonable demands and restrictions Elvis was putting on Priscilla throughout the movie.
32. Priscilla does not have Elvis Presley’s music on its soundtrack.
33. Sofia Coppola’s husband, Thomas Mars, and his band, Phoenix, scored the film.
34. Sons of Raphael wrote original music for the film.
35. On September 12, 2022, it was announced Sofia Coppola would direct an adaptation of Priscilla Presley’s memoir Elvis and Me.
36. When asked what made her want to adapt Priscilla’s memoir for her next feature film, Coppola responded in an interview, “I’ve had her memoir for years and remember reading it a long time ago. A friend of mine was talking about her recently, and we got around to discussing the book. I read it again and was really moved by her story. I was supposed to start this big Edith Wharton project that was gonna take five months to shoot and felt really daunting. I came up against a few hurdles, so I just decided to pivot to making one film with one idea. I was just so interested in Priscilla’s story and her perspective on what it all felt like to grow up as a teenager in Graceland. She was going through all the stages of young womanhood in such an amplified world—kinda similar to Marie Antoinette.”
37. When asked what made Cailee Spaeny the right choice to play Priscilla, Coppola stated, “The character goes from the age of 15 to 27 over the course of the film, so she had to be able to act and age across a big span of time. It was really important for me to have the same actress playing Priscilla at those different stages of her life, and I think Cailee can pull it off. She’s such a strong actress, and she also looks very young.”
38. Of Jacob Elordi’s casting as Elvis, Coppola stated, “I thought nobody was gonna look quite like Elvis, but Jacob has that same type of magnetism. He’s so charismatic, and girls go crazy around him, so I knew he could pull off playing this type of romantic icon. But we’re talking before we’ve even started filming, so I can’t get too deep into it.”
39. Coppola revealed in an interview that Priscilla Presley is an executive producer of Priscilla.
40. In emails which were exchanged with Coppola on September 2, 2022, and which were later obtained by Variety, Lisa Marie Presley, who died in January 2023, criticized how the film’s script portrayed her father.
41. She stated in one message that “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?”
42. Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2023.
43. It screened as the Centerpiece Selection of the 2023 New York Film Festival on October 6.
44. The movie had its Canadian premiere as a special presentation at the 42nd Vancouver International Film Festival on October 7.
45. The film was distributed in the United States by A24, and in Italy by Vision Distribution.
46. Originally to be distributed by Stage 6 Films and Sony Pictures Releasing International outside the United States and Italy, Sony later exited the project upon Presley’s estate withholding music rights.
47. Mubi later acquired these rights, with its sales company The Match Factory handling international sales and Mubi itself distributing in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Benelux, Turkey and Latin America.
48. The film made $132,149 from four theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $33,034 per venue.
49. Expanding to 1,344 theaters in its second weekend, the film made $5.1 million, finishing in fourth. It then made $4.8 million from 2,361 theaters in its third weekend
50. During its first weekend in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the film finished in sixth place. The film grossed £1.4 million during its first full week in theaters, including £643,800 over the weekend.