Lisa Marie Presley felt that Sofia Coppola's Priscilla script depicted Elvis as “a predator”

Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, reportedly told director, Sofia Coppola, that her script for the upcoming Priscilla movie painted her father as “a predator.”

E-mails have surfaced after being obtained by Variety, where Presley, who sadly passed away in January, expressed her concern with the Oscar-winning director, asking her to reconsider how her father was depicted and suggesting the film could put a strain on her relationship with her mother, the film’s subject, Priscilla Presley.

The film is a biopic explaining the story of Elvis and Priscilla as told in her 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me. The story depicts her relationship with Elvis, which began in 1959 when Priscilla was 14 and Elvis was 24. The film credits Priscilla Presley as an executive producer.

Lisa Marie Presley allegedly sent two emails, four hours apart in September 2022.

“My father only comes across as a predator and manipulative,” Presley wrote in one of the emails. "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?”

She continued to express her concern: “I will be forced to be in a position where I will have to openly say how I feel about the film and go against you, my mother and this film publicly.”

She praised Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis as “a break from suffering and a ray of light”, adding that she did not agree with Coppola’s “need to attempt to take my father down on the heels of such an incredible film using the excuse that you are trying to tell my mother’s story, but from your very dark and jaded reality”.

“I am worried that my mother isn’t seeing the nuance here or realising 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.”

Presley also mentioned how this will impact her children, writing: “I had to explain that we are going to have to endure another hit in our lives. That there is going to be a movie about her grandfather that is going to try to make him look really, really bad but it’s not true.”

“I had to explain that her beloved grandmother is supporting it. These two little girls have been through so much in the past 7 years, enduring my divorce and horrific custody battle and then losing their brother. We’ve all been drowning.”

Lisa Marie Presley sadly passed away due to complications regarding a bariatric surgery she’d undergone several years before.

Pricilla Presley commented on the movie, saying it was “very difficult to watch a film about you and your life and about your love” but has praised Coppola’s work and research and said she loves the film. “And I really put everything out for her that I could,” she said.

Coppola’s representative told Variety that the director responded to Presley's e-mails saying the following:

“I hope that when you see the final film you will feel differently, and understand I’m taking great care in honouring your mother, while also presenting your father with sensitivity and complexity.”