As a toddler of the South, actor Cailee Spaeny grew up steeped in Graceland mythology, memorabilia and Elvis Presley tunes.
Her mom beloved Elvis and it wasn’t uncommon for a visit to that well-known home in Memphis, Tennessee, to rely as a household trip. Priscilla Presley was after all a part of that. However Spaeny would discover there was far more than she’d ever identified when she acquired the chance to play her in Sofia Coppola ’s new movie, “Priscilla,” now in theaters nationwide.
“I had no thought about her aspect of the story and what her expertise was rising up in Graceland,” Spaeny stated in a current interview.
The movie relies on Presley’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me,” a diary-like account of her years with the King. She recounts assembly him at 14 in Wiesbaden, Germany, and shifting to Graceland not too lengthy after, the place she completed highschool. She talks about her unconventional hours, staying up all evening with Elvis and attempting to remain awake in class the subsequent day.
Jacob Elordi as Elvis and Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla, in a scene from “Priscilla.” (Philippe Le Sourd/A24 by way of AP)
She particulars how he dictated her look together with her hair (black and massive!), eye make-up (extra!) and clothes selections (no prints!), their ardour for each other, his volatility and her isolation. And maybe most significantly how she, and everybody round him, simply wished to make him comfortable— even after she selected to go away.
Spaeny acquired to spend a while with Presley earlier than filming started, although she wasn’t fully ready to be as star-struck as she was.
“I bear in mind once I first met her, I had all these questions able to go. I used to be so ready. After which I simply see her type of strolling my means they usually all simply go away you as a result of she has such a presence about her,” Spaeny stated. “The best way she carries herself is basically like nobody else. I imply, she actually is American royalty.”
She was equally grateful that Presley didn’t cling round set in the course of the shoot the place she and Jacob Elordi, the rising Australian actor forged as Elvis, had solely 30 days to inform this expansive however intimate story with lots of of costume adjustments and fairly a couple of wigs too.
“You simply don’t know what you’re stepping into when somebody is forged as your co-star,” Spaeny stated. “And when you will have that little time, you’re capturing large scenes each single day. You don’t get a light-weight day. So to have the ability to go into this venture with somebody who took it as severely as he did and actually took the time to seek out these nuances and to do the prep beforehand was such a aid.”
Elordi stated they rapidly developed an “unstated language” that helped carry them by way of. As an actor, he beloved going deep into why Elvis behaved the way in which he did.
“You must set up a base the place you possibly can simply fall into this quick love,” he stated. “We might type of look one another within the eyes and it could simply say, ‘You’re going to do that? I’m going to do that.’”
The beehive hairdo, Spaeny laughed, took extra getting used to. She discovered herself having to stroll “like a doll” and generally she’d overlook its top when getting right into a automobile. However the wigs can be a grounding consider a shoot that usually had her enjoying very totally different ages in the identical day.
“You simply acquired to do what you bought to do,” Spaeny stated. “It was simply one of many many enjoyable little challenges alongside the way in which. The hair, make-up and costumes had been actually important in figuring out what age she is and the place she is emotionally. That was the factor that I held on to.”
And it wasn’t only a gown up extravaganza for Spaeny both. Elordi acquired to put on customized seems to be all through.
“It was form of as cool because it sounds,” he stated. “, for me personally, it was like, ‘Do you wish to be Elvis Presley for 30 days and put on Valentino garments which are tailor-made to your physique?’ Sure. That’s superior.”
Although Spaeny might need much less dialogue than Elordi, her efficiency has been making waves since its debut — a breakout that has already been acknowledged by the Venice Movie Pageant and is bound to garner extra nominations as awards season picks up.
“She will be able to convey a lot emotion with simply her face,” Coppola stated. “It’s mysterious however the digicam can choose up on it. She’s so photogenic and a few folks simply bounce off the display, however you possibly can hook up with them in an emotional means.”
In a single scene, the place Elvis tells a really pregnant Priscilla that he needs her to maneuver out and she or he calls his bluff, Coppola debated utilizing narration. She’d beloved what Presley had written about that second and wished to seize that, however she additionally wished to have the movie keep within the current. And Spaeny was as much as the problem.
“I talked to Cailee and we did one other take and she or he did some little shift,” Coppola stated. “You see midway down the corridor, her face adjustments with decision. It was so refined. I don’t know the way she did it. It’s a expertise that some actresses can actually simply convey a lot with out saying something.”
And although issues went rapidly and generally it felt like Spaeny couldn’t really feel her toes on the bottom, she was grateful that her director saved a relaxed, centered set. It was, she stated, the other of chaos.
“I’ve by no means actually labored with somebody fairly like her, and the way in which she handles herself on the set,” Spaeny stated. “She is aware of when to take issues severely and when to have enjoyable. Everybody simply brings their A-game due to her. She simply leads with kindness. She needs to be collaborative and she or he has a transparent imaginative and prescient.”
Although each Spaeny and Elordi have bother watching themselves on display, they’re pleased with “Priscilla.” Elordi stated he felt honored to be “a part of the way in which that she needs her story to be instructed.”
And each walked away with one thing tangible from whirlwind too. Elordi stated he has a couple of “secret issues.” Spaeny acquired one thing too, nevertheless it is perhaps a bit a lot even for somebody who grew up surrounded by Elvis stuff.
“I’ve this actually unusual mural of myself as Priscilla. It was a lovely portray, nevertheless it’s me as Priscilla that was hanging on the partitions of Graceland. I simply am like, what do I do with this? I can’t put it wherever,” she laughed. “I believe I’ve acquired to, like, ship it to my grandma. I believe she’d adore it.”