It’s not easy to follow in a celebrity parents footsteps, harder still to be taken seriously when choosing the same career path, near on in impossible if the parent in question is an Oscar-winning director, credited with the reawakening of American film at a time of cinematic decline.
But against the odds, Sofia Coppola – daughter of revered filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola – has managed to achieve the impossible, and in doing so this astute, talented and highly regarded female director has won an Academy Award in her own right.
Twenty years after winning international acclaim with her third film, the multi-award winning Lost In Translation, Coppola, 52, is back with Priscilla – a biographical take on the 1985 memoir Elvis And Me, by Priscilla Presley.
And she admits working on location in Memphis, on a set designed to capture the Tennessee capital during the 1960s, conjured images of the time she spent with her father during his peak Hollywood years – a period that included the turbulent filming of 1979 war epic Apocalypse Now.
‘I loved to go to set, it was fun to visit all the departments,’ she told the autumn-winter edition of AnOther. ‘When I was a little girl on Apocalypse [Now] the costume designer would make clothes for my teddy bear.
Let’s talk: Sofia Coppola has spoken to AnOther magazine about growing up on set with director father Francis Ford Coppola
Old times: Sofia, now 52-years old, with her five time Academy Award winning father – she describes her childhood as ‘like being at a circus or something’
‘Set was a magical place. My early memories of it were like being at a circus or something.
‘But I learnt so much just from being around him and him always talking about film because he’s still so excited about it. It’s just the most interesting medium to him.
‘I keep what he says in mind but do it my way. You don’t realise what you’re taking in, but when I’m on set it’s familiar because I spent so much time there as a kid.’
Her new film, which documents the life of Elvis Presley and his tumultuous relationship with a teenage Priscilla, was approached with the same exuberance displayed by Francis – whose five Oscars include Best Adapted Screenplay for The Godfather and Best Film for The Godfather Part II.
She said: ‘I reread Priscilla’s book and it really appealed to me to jump into her world — it felt contained. I like the super-Americana thing of Memphis in the Sixties. It felt exotic because it wasn’t anything I grew up knowing about.
Sofia admits she was also struck by Priscilla’s decision to jeopardise her lifestyle by leaving Elvis in 1972 – at a time when he was the self-styled ‘king of rock’n’roll – and strike out on her own.
‘I was impressed that Priscilla actually left Elvis and got out, because I think it must have been hard for women of that generation, if you don’t have money of your own and you’re with someone powerful, to be able to leave,’ she said.
‘That was really striking to me — how did this woman who was Mrs Elvis her whole life have the strength to leave that?’
Advice: ‘I keep what he says in mind but do it my way. You don’t realise what you’re taking in, but when I’m on set it’s familiar because I spent so much time there as a kid,’ she said
Stunning: Coppola accompanied her latest interview with a photoshoot, arranged by photographer Bibi Borthwick
Success: Against the odds, Sofia has managed to achieve the impossible by stepping out of her famous father’s shadow and winning accolades of her own
Popular: The astute, talented and highly regarded female director has also won an Academy Award in her own right
Coppola recently admitted she considered raffling off a pickleball game with her handsome leading man Jacob Elordi, who plays Elvis, in order to boost the budget of their upcoming indie film after some of the financing fell through.
‘We built a pickleball court on our shooting stage and everyone started to play at lunch, and we had a big tournament at the end,’ the 52-year-old filmmaker explained in the October edition of WSJ. Magazine.
‘[Jacob] can play pickleball. Our budget was always strained, low budget, and I was like, “I wonder if I could raffle off a pickleball game with Jacob to raise money to get one more day of shooting.”‘
Coppola didn’t end up doing an auction, but she said the Australian 26-year-old ‘was a good sport. He indulged me, even though he’s not an enthusiast. I think he associates it with, like, Malibu moms.’
The autumn-winter 2023 edition of AnOther magazine is out now.
Say cheese: The celebrated director shot a series of tasteful black and white shots to accompany her latest interview
Coming soon: Her new film documents the life of Elvis Presley and his tumultuous relationship with a teenage Priscilla (pictured)
Read all about it: The autumn-winter 2023 edition of AnOther magazine is out now
