Jacob Elordi & Cailee Spaeny Break Down 'Priscilla' Scene with Director Sofia Coppola

Hi, I'm Sofia Coppola.

I'm Cailee Spaeny.

I'm Jacob Elordi.

And this is Notes On A Scene.

What do you mean, you don't know if you like it?

I don't know. There's just something about it,

a catchiness that it's missing.

[chair crashes]

[Man] Watch out!

[Priscilla gasps]

This scene takes place in Elvis Presley's office

with padded walls

and he's listening to some demo records

that he's not pleased with

and it's from her book, her story,

she described this moment.

I had lots of different conversations with her

before I started filming, how she was toeing that line

of being supportive, but also speaking her mind.

And I think this scene here is her sort of, yeah,

taking those first steps

of having an opinion and voicing it.

♪ Nobody called me up to say ♪

♪ The big bad baby's back in town ♪

So we had to have demos that were not good songs.

[Cailee laughing]

So that was fun to pick the songs

that he would be repelled by.

And I know Jacob worked a lot to get Elvis's voice right.

And when we watched the film with Priscilla the first time,

what struck her the most was

how much his voice sounded like Elvis.

So that was a big thrill I think.

Yeah, I mean that was a great relief.

[old-school rock music]

[Elvis] These songs are all garbage.

Each one's worse than the next.

I'm pretty lucky to kind of be in his register anyway.

But I think for me it was trying to invent

what he would sound like behind closed doors

because everyone has, you know,

a performing voice and a speaking voice.

Our whole story was really behind closed doors,

what they were like in private.

And so everything we could look at is them.

There were home movies without sound that kind of showed us

how they interacted and you could get a kind

of feeling the essence of them and how they were together.

That helped a lot.

Each one's worse than the next.

Well these aren't finished yet either.

[old-school rock music]

We had an incredible prop department.

And you can see here, they recreated pictures

of Elvis with his mom.

And we had an actress play his mom, who's not in the movie,

and they made gold records with your face.

Was that fun to see your face on the gold records?

[Jacob] Yeah, yeah, all the...

And Elvis really liked all these animal figurines.

So his office is filled with those.

And you'll see throughout the movie, these animal figurines.

Look at that.

♪ Well you used to love to me all night long, ♪

♪ Now you're playing a different song ♪

[Man] It's got potential.

I love working with Phillipe Le Sourd,

our cinematographer, just the lighting.

We built all these sets, so they're not real locations,

but he made them feel like real places.

And also because the art department did such a great job

and the rooms are filled with smoke,

which I forgot about.

Phillipe used a lot of smoke

to diffuse a light and give a soft look.

But it, it definitely had an atmosphere.

[Cailee] Mm.

We always wanted him to look cool

'cause he's Elvis, so he had to always look cool.

And I think Jacob did a great job with just kind of

inhabiting the way he moved with

a sort of panther kind of...

[Jacob] Mm.

[Cailee] Mm.

I don't know what, but he definitely moved differently

when he showed up as Elvis and had a presence about him,

The set and the space that Sofia and the team

provided for us, like the things

that you kind of pick up on.

So much of it by this point was happening naturally

because when you came to the office,

it immediately had a darker tone

because it's like, every scene in the office was...

Hmm.

He'd be sitting and brooding.

Right.

Every bedroom scene, the fun was informed

because like every scene we did in there

was kind of like that.

And then when we shot in Graceland,

we were always coming through the front door.

So there was always an explosion.

So I think a lot of it is honestly subconscious

because the space that was provided for us...

The atmosphere.

The atmosphere informed a lot of...

That's cool.

What was happening, you know,

for those kind of minute things, I think.

Turn it off.

[old-school rock music, record scratching]

When are they gonna send me a goddamn decent song?

Priscilla, what do you think?

I don't know if I like it.

So this is a moment that she talks about in the book

where she's a young girl and she's trying to,

you know, assert an opinion and he's,

you know, surrounded by his buddies that all always say yes.

Which I think the actors who played

the Memphis Mafia brought so much

of the atmosphere to the movie.

'cause it was such an important element for her

to feel like it was always a sort of guys club.

These actors were brilliant at sort of

making that come alive.

What it must have felt like in that time for her.

Yeah, they were great.

They were always coming up with funny jokes

and real like, kind of corny...

Yeah.

Jokes, and so it really is like her coming

into the guys' world.

Yeah.

And this scene especially, 'cause you're in his office

and trying to participate,

but always surrounded by all the guys.

Yeah.

We had walls with pictures of Priscilla

from all her eras from her as a kid

to the end of the story in her late twenties, you know,

pictures from graduation and all the pictures

of her life where her hair and makeup

would kind of tell us where we were in the story.

And you spent a a lot of time...

Sometimes I felt like we were in the makeup chair

more than we were doing a scene,

but it was such an important part

of Priscilla's journey

and how really a marker of where she was emotionally

and where she was with him

and how she was presenting herself.

Priscilla told us that Elvis would never come downstairs

not fully dressed in a look, like he loved to dress up,

and it was important to him.

And also it was kind of also a sign of respect

that you know, you dressed...

Sure.

And, and it was that time.

So that's how they really lived.

We wanted to show how they really lived

even in their private life.

What do you mean, you don't know if you like it?

I don't know. There's just something about it,

A catchiness that it's missing.

[Man] Watch out!

[chair crashes]

[Priscilla gasps]

I remember we had to shoot that scene

and he really had to throw a chair.

Priscilla said he didn't ever throw a chair at me.

It was at the wall next to me.

It was pretty clear he never tried to hurt her,

but he lost his temper and threw it at a wall

near her in her direction.

And so we were shooting at the stunt.

People didn't want Jacob to really throw a chair,

but then it was important for us

that Jacob really throw the chair.

'cause so much of the performance,

I would imagine is affected by...

Yeah. Yeah. Originally they had wanted to get to the point

and then have a stuntman step in and throw the chair.

But there's like a velocity sort of

to the scene, the way it moves from the start

that to kind of cut it would've,

I think, taken away that impact.

And also to see his switch.

'cause a lot of the movie you're

in his more gentle, vulnerable side.

And so we want to feel like you're

always in Priscilla's point of view.

And to be shocking when someone's mood shifts like that.

We only had like four chairs.

The pressure was on.

Oh, yeah, how many...

Yeah.

We only had a few takes.

I think just feeling the shift in the scene,

and the sort of the highs and lows of how she navigates him.

And I think this is, you know, her sort of starting

to handle things a little bit differently.

Oh, I'm sorry baby.

Are you okay?

I'm sorry baby.

I, I got my mama's temper.

Yeah, I'm okay.

Are you okay?

Mm-hmm.

[Elvis breathing heavily]

And at the end of the scene, we stay on her face.

So you're just with her,

it's always kinda going back to her

and what her emotions are

and that was something that editing of like,

how long do we stay with her

and, you know, finding that balance.

But we always wanted to be

looking through her point of view.

This was a very sensitive time in his career.

And I think she had to know how to navigate him.

And so I think she wanted to be supportive,

but also be honest.

Priscilla would always say you try to lift him up

in these moments 'cause it was so emotional for Elvis.

So she's trying to cool down the situation.

She doesn't wanna escalate it anymore.

But also I think it's important at the end to see

that she's really...

That defines her.

Internalizing this moment

and it's not nothing.

I feel like you show so much on your face

at the end of the scene where he's apologetic

and she is, you're kind of digesting...

[Cailee] Yeah, what do you do with that?

What you do with that apology after that's happened?

Yeah. What she's in.

And I feel like you're so good at showing both things

and lot of things that don't go together at the same time.

So I feel like you show that kind of torn emotion.

And also I think like as the actress, you know,

he is gonna have an outburst, but the character doesn't.

So you have to, I'm sure it's a challenge

to be able to be in the moment.

The real chair throw helped though.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

For the reaction.

Yeah. I guess. Yeah. That's good to know.

[Man] Watch out!

[chair crashes]

[Priscilla gasps]

Thanks for watching our notes on the scene.