Variety reports that the late Lisa Marie Presley had complained to director Sofia Coppola about how her father Elvis was portrayed in the script of a new movie as “a predator and manipulative”.
Variety reported that four months prior to her death in January, Lisa Marie wrote to the filmmaker expressing concerns.
The movie chronicles her mother Priscilla’s encounter with Elvis when she was fourteen years old. Priscilla has given the film her support.
Coppola told Lisa Marie that he is portrayed with “sensitivity and complexity”.
Elvis and Me, Priscilla’s memoir from 1985, serves as the basis for the movie.
In one email, Lisa Marie reportedly wrote: “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?”
Although Lisa Marie threatened to publicly criticize the movie and her mother’s support for it, Priscilla is listed as an executive producer on it.
“I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realizing the way in which Elvis will be perceived when this movie comes out,” she wrote.
“I feel protective over my mother who has spent her whole life elevating my father’s legacy. I am worried she doesn’t understand the intentions behind this film or the outcome it will have.”
Priscilla not only provided the film’s source material but also served as executive producer and participated in several interviews.
She said on Thursday on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show that it was a true portrayal of her and her bond with the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Coppola, who won an Oscar in 2004 for the screenplay for Lost in Translation, “did some homework”, Priscilla said. “She and I, we talked about it.”
Priscilla told Morgan it was “a different time” when they first started dating in 1959, when she was only 14 and he was 24 and serving in the US Army in Germany.
Elvis was “unique”, she said. “I don’t know about grooming me. I didn’t take it at that. I’d never heard the word. Obviously it’s all new now, but he loved to take me to beautiful stores to buy me an outfit. I didn’t have any money. He would take me to the movies every night.”
