Jacob Elordi has shared that his first encounter with the music of Elvis Presley was in the hit Disney animated movie, Lilo & Stitch.
The 26-year-old Euphoria breakout stars in the new Priscilla biopic opposite Cailee Spaeny. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola, the film tells of the courtship between 14-year-old Priscilla Presley née Beaulieu and 24-year-old Elvis.
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Elordi discussed the “terrifying” pressure he felt portraying the Rock n’ Roll icon.
“Growing up, were you an Elvis fan?” host Fallon asked. “No. The most I knew of Elvis was in Lilo & Stitch,” the Australian actor revealed. “Which is a lot, by the way.”
In the original 2002 Lilo & Stich movie, the young Hawaiian girl Lilo introduces her blue alien friend Stitch to Presley’s music. The film’s soundtrack includes many of the singer’s biggest hits, including “Stuck on You”, “Burning Love”, “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”.
Priscilla comes a year after Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated musical biopic Elvis, which starred Austin Butler as the late rocker.
Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny in ‘Priscilla’— (Philippe Le Sourd)
Asked at this year’s Golden Globes if he had any advice for Elordi taking on the role, Butler, 32, wished him “all the best”. “I hope he has a great time,” the Dune star added.
Ahead of the film’s world premiere at Venice Film Festival this summer, Priscilla, 78, praised the “masterful Sofia Coppola”, saying: “She has such an extraordinary perspective and I have always been such an admirer of her work.
“I’m certain this movie will take everyone on an emotional journey.”
Presley’s estate, however, lambasted the project, likening it to a “college movie”. “The set designs are just horrific, it’s not what Graceland looks like,” Elvis’ estate official said in June.
In Geoffrey Macnab’s three-star review for The Independent, he called the film “a downbeat and dour affair”.
“In her own coolly analytical way, Coppola makes some trenchant points about the way Priscilla is controlled by the men in her life. She is living in a gilded cage,” Macnab added.
“The wealth and luxury she experiences don’t compensate for her complete loss of freedom. And while Elvis may indeed have been the King, his court – on the evidence here – was a very dreary place indeed.”
Priscilla is out in US cinemas now. It will be released in select UK cinemas from 26 December before opening widely on 1 January.
