Priscilla Presley revealed that watching the scenes between Elvis and manager Colonel Parker in Baz Luhrmann’s biopic were the hardest to watch and “brought back a lot of memories.”
“He didn’t take Elvis where he wanted to be, and that was hard because I lived it,” she said in an interview with the “Today” show on Tuesday. “So living that, with him, and watching the movie, it brought back a lot of memories.”
Presley also said that her former husband’s longtime manger “should have stayed a publicist,” recalling the arguments between the two in which Elvis explained his desire to be involved in “serious” projects.
“He wanted to do movies, serious movies,” she said. “I lived the arguments that they had, I lived Elvis trying to explain he didn’t want to do the movies with all the girls and the beaches and everything, that he really wanted to do serious things.”
Despite these difficult moments, Presley still sees the other side of Parker, the “sweet” side that took care of both his wives.
“There were two sides to him: the business and, of course, the very gentle side where he’s not working,” she said. “He had to live out what Elvis wanted to do, or what he promised Elvis, and that was he was gonna make him a million dollars.”
Presley also told the NBC morning show that she was initially “concerned” when she first heard of Luhrmann’s plans for “Elvis.”
“I was a little concerned at first when I heard that Baz was gonna do the movie,” she said. “I actually met him; I invited him to my home [and] we spent about four hours together. He put me a little at ease but still I didn’t know how it was gonna come out.”
However, Presley was pleasantly surprised when she saw the film, noting that at the end of the private screening with Jerry Schilling, the pair “went ‘Wow, this is Elvis, truly.’”
