Priscilla Star Only Knew About Elvis From Lilo & Stitch

Priscilla will arrive in theaters very soon, providing a new recounting of the complicated relationship between Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny) and Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi). There will surely be tons of interesting revelations from the Sofia Coppola-helmed film, especially given Elvis' permanence in pop culture and the recent success of Baz Luhrmann's Elvis. As Elordi revealed in a recent interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, his previous exposure to Elvis was rooted in an unexpected place. According to Elordi, the majority of his knowledge of Elvis prior to signing on for Priscilla was actually from the animated Disney hit Lilo & Stitch, which uses Presley's music and iconography to teach Stitch about human culture.

"The most I knew of Elvis was in Lilo & Stitch," Elordi revealed. "Which is a lot!"

"Sofia had sent me these sides that said Elvis and I kinda just was like, 'There's no chance that this is happening,'" Elordi recalled. "I watched this clip of him when he came back from the Army in Germany and read the lines for like 15 minutes and then shot two takes not thinking it would go anywhere."

What Is Priscilla About?

In Priscilla, when teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a gentle best friend. Through Priscilla's eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla's long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame.

"I found that reality fascinating: She wasn't allowed to have friends over to Graceland, and she'd hear other girls whispering about her," Coppola explained in a previous interview. "She was so isolated. It was strangely relatable: In my 20s, I remember having a crush on a guy, and part of it was, if I was with him, then I wouldn't have to develop an identity of my own: I could just be the girlfriend of this guy, and that would be so much easier. I was devastated when that relationship didn't work out. But it forced me to find my own personality, and that's a similar story to what happened with Priscilla—she lost herself in Elvis."

What Is Priscilla Based On?

Written by Coppola, Priscilla is based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, which was co-written by the real-life Priscilla and Sandra Harmon. 

"I feel it's only my job to show what her experience is like, and I think you present things to an audience for them to think about and make their own decisions," Coppola explained in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. "She ultimately left and found her identity outside of men, which I thought must have taken so much strength at that time. It was a big deal to have no income and divorce a powerful man. I know what a big deal that was at that time. So I was impressed that she had the strength to do that, to leave after her whole life being shaped by that."

Priscilla is set to be released exclusively in select theaters on Friday, October 27th, followed by a wider run on Friday, November 3rd.