The King of Rock’n’Roll has always been the source of fascination, but the spotlight has never quite hit the woman behind the man. In a biopic greenlit by Priscilla Presley herself, Sofia Coppola returns to the director’s chair for the eponymous film, Priscilla, starring Cailee Spaeny as the titular character.
Based on her memoir, viewers get to see the private inner life of Elvis and his wife. From their first meeting at a party that led to early marriage to Priscilla’s age when she first met Elvis, Priscilla is filled to the brim with controversies. Bringing the character and her story to life on the silver screen is no easy feat, but the remarkable Cailee Spaeny has played the title role with ease, displaying her usual acting prowess. The young actor transforms into her character while playing the part, which makes it easy to forget that she portrayed quite a different character in the HBO miniseries, Mare of Easttown.
Cailee Spaeny kicked off the mystery in Mare of Easttown
Starring Kate Winslet as the prime protagonist, who needed to take a year off after filming the series, Mare of Easttown is an exercise in grief and trauma. As Mare (Winslet) continues to grapple with her son’s suicide, she throws herself into her work when 17-year-old Erin McMenamin’s body is discovered. Though she dies early on, Cailee Spaeny plays the role with vulnerability and ultimately heartbreaking results as Erin’s story is revisited in flashbacks. The teenage mother of her infant son, DJ, Erin receives brutal treatment from her classmates as well as her controlling father. The seven-episode season hinges on the audience falling for Erin. We have to feel for her predicament so that we care about solving her murder.
The mystery of her murder is not for the faint of heart. In the final episode, Erin gets justice after a rollercoaster of events as Mare discovers that Erin’s child’s father was not her boyfriend but was the result of an incestuous relationship with her cousin, John Ross (Joe Tippett) — who also happens to be the husband of Mare’s best friend, Lori (Julianne Nicholson). But shockingly enough, it wasn’t John who killed Erin — it was his son, Ryan (Cameron Mann), who discovered the affair and met up with Erin to scare her away from his family in an attempt to stop John from getting wrapped up in yet another extramarital relationship.
Sadly, he ended up accidentally shooting her as their conversation escalated. But the more disturbing part is that after John and Lori find out about it, they try to cover for him by pinning Erin’s death on someone else.
The fictional Erin is largely different from the real-life celebrity Priscilla Presley, but one character does inform the other. Both characters are young women taken advantage of by those around them, and Spaeny portrays both with magnificence while implementing an impressive level of empathy.