Cailee Spaeny is getting all shook up in Sofia Coppola’s highly anticipated Priscilla biopic.
Coppola, 52, teamed up with A24 to adapt Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, about Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis Presley from their courtship to eventual divorce.
“I’m excited to do something rooted in that Americana style for the first time. And Priscilla is a quintessential glamour icon,” the filmmaker told Vogue in October 2022. “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 — kind of similarly to [my movie] Marie Antoinette.”
Spaeny, 25, led the film as Priscilla opposite Euphoria star Jacob Elordi as the King of Rock ’n’ Roll himself. While Elordi made headlines for his version of the “Elvis voice,” Spaeny’s Priscilla took center stage throughout the film, which was released on Friday, November 3.
“Priscilla, what about boys at school? Must be some handsome ones?” The actress playing Priscilla’s mother, Anna Iversen, said in the film’s trailer, which was released in June, as Spaeny gave her onscreen mom a knowing look before the video flashed forward to Spaeny and Elordi’s characters kissing on their wedding day. (The real-life couple, who shared daughter Lisa Marie Presley, were married between 1967 and 1973.)
Spaeny’s starring role in Priscilla is hardly her first acting role. The Missouri native booked her first gig in 2018, playing Amara Namani in Pacific Rim: Uprising.
“I was 18 when I got my first role and now I would say I could have waited a couple more years. But movies are my home and I think it’s hard for any young girl in these times with social media,” she told Glass Magazine in August 2021.”
Since then, Spaeny has continued to land starring roles in the likes of Bad Times at the El Royale, The First Lady and The Craft: Legacy.
“One of my goals is whatever I’ve done last, I want to do the exact opposite for my next role, I want to keep challenging and pushing myself,” the Mare of Easttown alum added to Glass. “I actually feel a sense of relief when I play a character that’s so far from who I am because I think once it starts bleeding into Cailee, it gets a little muddy for me.”
Spaeny continued at the time: “Whenever I play a character that has different costumes or the way they hold themselves is completely different, just seeking out those subtleties, it’s easier for me to find a path into the character’s world.”
Scroll below to get to know Spaeny:
Who Is Cailee Spaeny Playing in ‘Priscilla’?
The How It Ends actress portrays the titular role of Priscilla Presley in Coppola’s biopic.
What Has Sofia Coppola Said About Working With Cailee Spaeny on ‘Priscilla?’
While there have been many movies about Elvis, including Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated picture, Coppola wanted Priscilla to be the “real focus” of her adaptation.
“I loved how Baz approached his story in a very collage-y way, but I’m glad it didn’t go into much of Priscilla’s story because now I can really dive deep,” the Bling Ring director told Vogue in 2022. “I think Baz is so unique and his take on that story was so creative. But Priscilla is such a minor character in that film so I never felt like I was treading on the same territory. I love that people were so into his film about Elvis, and now in a few years, there’ll be another film about Priscilla. I think it’ll be interesting to have two completely different interpretations of the same events and time period.”
What Is Cailee Spaeny Known for?
After rising to fame with her role in Pacific Rim: Uprising, Spaeny appeared in On the Basis of Sex, The Craft: Legacy, Mare of Easttown and The First Lady. The Devs alum also had a featured role in All-American Rejects’ 2019 music video for their song “Send Her to Heaven.”
What Has Cailee Spaeny Said About Her Red Carpet Style?
“I feel like I’ve only been in this for a second! It still blows my mind that part of my job is to walk around on carpets wearing beautiful dresses,” she told Vogue in February 2020. “I come from a very large family, so it was lots of hand-me-down clothes and shopping at second-hand stores and always trying to save money. So it still feels surreal to be able to pick and choose what my style is and what it means and what it says.”
Where Is Cailee Spaeny From?
Spaeny hails from Springfield, Missouri, where she grew up with her eight siblings.
