By Maria Chirvanian | Staff Writer
Priscilla Beaulieu Presley is such a popular name with such little knowledge about it. Priscilla was Elvis Presley’s wife, however, before 2023, what did we really know about her? Were we even interested enough to know? All we knew about her was one obvious fact: she is Elvis Presley’s ex-wife. Probably because she was painted as half a person, constantly associated with her ex-husband’s name, and never her name on its own. This is understandable, to some extent, considering Elvis Presley’s fame and the fact that she (still, to this day) identifies herself with his last name. But the fact that the media never really paid attention to her or her struggles, which she largely talks about in her book entitled Elvis and Me, drove the making of film director Sofia Coppola’s new hit movie Priscilla, where she follows the life of this woman and highlights the harsh reality of being married to Presley. Coppola, being known for her effective storytelling of the “inner lives of teenage girls” and her advocation of the female gaze (Rao, 2023), was the perfect choice to correctly and accurately adapt Priscilla Presley’s book about her love life with Elvis. This article emphasizes her life with him and the abuse she faced, which sheds light on women’s struggles in their romantic relationships with men.
There is no denying that Priscilla Beaulieu and Elvis Presley were in love. They met in 1959 at a party he had thrown at his house in Germany, and they instantly connected over the fact that they were both Americans living in Europe. She was 14; he was 24. Although the elements of grooming were present, the movie doesn’t emphasize them or the age difference. It realistically depicts the love that was between them, which is the whole reason Priscilla stayed in this relationship for so long, unable to walk away from the love of her life.
Elvis, on the other hand, started abusing her from the moment he asked her to reduce her existence to him, reacting violently every time she tried to express herself, her wants, and her needs. She moved in with him when she was still in school, and graduated eventually, keeping her promise to her parents. Following these events, Presley stopped her from working at a local boutique, insisting she stay at home all the time waiting for him. He said, and I quote, “It’s either me or a career, baby. Because when I call you, I need you to be there.” (Crosbie, 2023) She obviously chose him, to the point where she was even dressing the way he wanted her to, making her disregard her own opinions on the matter. She dyed her hair black and started wearing more eye makeup, all because he thought she would look better this way. It even got to a point where she wore a full face of make-up for him while she gave birth.
Diving deeper into the story helps us understand the pattern. Priscilla expresses herself or her discontentment over a certain event (such as his repeated unfaithfulness, for example), and Elvis gets mad, yells, and becomes physically violent at times. He then immediately realizes his mistake when she starts crying or gets scared and apologizes at the moment, becoming physically affectionate. This is how he was able to keep her around for so long. Psychologically speaking, the moment he calms down after his rage outbursts, he would have Beaulieu in his arms either apologizing or explaining why he was right, making her feel like she needed him and that he was right when he told her he did not want her to have a life outside of his. This is especially highlighted in the scene where (Incoming Spoiler alert!) Elvis is shown new music that he isn’t fond of. He then proceeds to ask his then-girlfriend for her opinion on a song that caught his attention. After she said she didn’t “know if [she] likes it”, he threw a chair at her, which she luckily dodged by moving her head.
Not only was the physical and mental abuse present, but Presley was also the reason Beaulieu started using drugs when she was still a minor. Because of the sleepless nights she would spend with him while she was still in school, she had trouble staying awake, and this is how Elvis started giving her pills to help her with this problem. He later proceeded to give her 500mg of Placidyl which made her sleep for two whole days.
“If girlhood is a dream, Priscilla is a film about fighting to not wake up for as long as possible, despite the increasing intrusions of uglier realities.” (Willmore, 2023). Priscilla Beaulieu Presley and Elvis Presley’s relationship rightly depicts how and why women often stay in abusive relationships. In Priscilla’s case, she loved Elvis so blindly from such a young age that she was not able to recognize what was going on, especially since she was young and needed distance to realize she deserved better. It was not until 14 years later that she asked for a divorce because they were living separate lives. She stopped trying to publicly be with Elvis since he did not want that, and he started going on tours without letting her or their daughter tag along. While their relationship was certainly not perfect, it is worth noting that it did not turn sexual until later, when Priscilla and Elvis married in 1967. On a more melancholic note, Presley passed away in 1977 and Beaulieu did not remarry, because “no one could match him.” (Clack, Gray, 2023)
References
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2023/11/05/sofia-coppola-movies-priscilla/
https://www.vulture.com/article/priscilla-sofia-coppola-movie-review.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/priscilla-presley-elvis-marriage-most-shocking-lines-memoir-2023-11