On A Role CAILEE SPAENY AS PRISCILLA PRESLEY
THE ACTOR ON HER VENICE FILM FESTIVAL PRIZE-WINNING TURN IN BIOPIC PRISCILLA
WORDS JOHN NUGENT
Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley
THE BOOK
Writer-director Sofia Coppola based Priscilla on Elvis And Me, the 1985 memoir by Priscilla Presley detailing her whirlwind romance with, marriage to and ultimate divorce from Elvis Presley. For 25-year-old Cailee Spaeny, it was the obvious start to her research. “The first thing I did was read the book,” she says. “The script leaned heavily on it.” She was broadly familiar with the subject before she cracked it open. “‘I’m from the Southern Midwest,” Spaeny explains. “I was born in Tennessee. My mom was an Elvis-memorabilia collector. We were raised on Elvis — and I obviously knew Priscilla and Elvis go hand-in-hand.” Still, the book proved to be an eye-opener. “I knew the iconic moments and photos, but I didn’t know her story. I thought that that was sort of astonishing, that her story wasn’t as well-known as it should be.”