Unlike Baz Luhrmann’s surreal and bombastic Elvis, which featured depictions of a string of other music legends from the ’50s and ’60s alongside Austin Butler’s take on the titular star, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla tells a quieter and more intimate tale about the king of rock and roll and his wife of six years—one that largely plays out in Graceland, where they lived surrounded by their family. Below, we compare the actors in the film to the people they’re portraying, and delve into their real-life stories.
Photos: Getty Images1/7Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla Presley
The 25-year-old Missouri native, whom some viewers may recognize as Mare of Easttown’s tragic Erin McMenamin, is taking the lead in the biopic, in the role that Olivia DeJonge embodied in Elvis. Spaeny portrays Priscilla from the age of 14 to 27, taking the future style icon from the West German town of Wiesbaden, where she was living with her family when she first met Elvis in 1959, to 1972, when she finally separated from him. The real Priscilla Presley approved of Spaeny’s casting and serves as an executive producer on Priscilla.
Photos: Getty Images2/7Jacob Elordi as Elvis Presley
The music superstar will be presented in all his swaggering, magnetic glory by the 26-year-old Australian heartthrob, best known for his breakout turn as Euphoria’s toxic Nate Jacobs and soon to be seen in Emerald Fennell’s delicious new thriller Saltburn. He plays Elvis from the age of 24, when he first met Priscilla while in the midst of his military service in Germany, through his phase of making Hollywood musicals, his 1968 comeback special and Las Vegas residency, and up to the age of 37, when his marriage ended. He would die of heart failure just five years later. Elordi’s performance is certainly more introverted than Austin Butler’s barnstorming take on the icon, but no less effective.
Photos: Getty Images3/7Ari Cohen as Paul Beaulieu
Taking on the role of Priscilla’s stepfather, a US air force officer who had been transferred from Texas to Wiesbaden—a fortuitous move that led to his stepdaughter meeting her future husband—is Cohen, a Canadian actor who has appeared in It and Molly’s Game. (Priscilla’s biological father, a US navy pilot, died in a plane crash when she was only six months old.) Initially concerned by the young Priscilla’s relationship with the much older Elvis, Beaulieu was soon charmed by the musician and allowed her to visit and later live with him at Graceland.
Photos: Getty Images4/7Dagmara Domińczyk as Ann Beaulieu
Playing Priscilla’s mother, who was also troubled by her young daughter’s obsession with Elvis, is the Poland-born, New York-raised actor who played Logan Roy’s long-suffering head of PR, Karolina, across four seasons of Succession, and also appeared in a startlingly different role in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter. Like her husband Paul, Ann tried to sway Priscilla when she became hellbent on moving in with Elvis, but eventually relented and supported her decision.
Photos: Getty Images5/7Tim Post as Vernon Presley
The Canadian actor, who appeared in Mayor of Kingstown, plays Elvis’s father, who managed his son’s business affairs at Graceland. Vernon acted as one of Priscilla’s chaperones during her stay at the estate before her marriage, and in Priscilla is shown to be particularly strict, banning the teenager from inviting friends over and limiting her allowance.
Photos: Getty Images6/7Stephanie Moore as Dee Presley
Portraying Elvis’s stepmother—who married Vernon in 1960, less than two years after the death of his first wife and Elvis’s mother, Gladys—is Moore, another Canadian actor. In Priscilla, Elvis is shown to have a complicated relationship with her and, like Vernon, she frequently reprimands the young Priscilla, urging her to stay indoors and not “make a public spectacle of herself” while at Graceland.
Photos: Getty Images7/7Evan Annisette as Mike Stone
Despite only making a brief appearance in Priscilla, in a scene where he’s teaching our titular heroine karate, and later lunching with her alongside other friends, Stone played a crucial role in her life. In her 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, Priscilla admits to having had an affair with her then martial arts instructor, a relationship which contributed to the breakdown of her marriage to Elvis. Stone is depicted by Annisette, who’s previously appeared in Locke & Key.
