Sofia Coppola imagines Priscilla's teen years, living at Graceland with Elvis

Transcript

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley. When Priscilla met and married Elvis Presley, she was living every teenage girl's dream. And for years in films, television and music, their relationship was romanticized - even after their divorce and Elvis' death. But in most depictions, Elvis was at the center of the story with little interrogation of their age difference - Elvis being 24 and Priscilla just 14 years old when they met. In the new movie "Priscilla," filmmaker Sofia Coppola uses her signature style to look at their love affair from Priscilla's vantage point - a teenager who comes of age during her romance with Elvis. Coppola adapted the story from Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir "Elvis And Me." This is Coppola's eighth feature film. Some of her others include "The Virgin Suicides," "Marie Antoinette" and "Lost In Translation," which she won an Oscar for in 2003 for best original screenplay.

Sofia Coppola, welcome back to FRESH AIR. It really seems like we can never get enough of the phenomenon that was Elvis. I mean, we just keep telling variations of his story over and over, but there is something so fresh about what you have done here by centering Priscilla. And I just want to start with talking a little bit about what it was about this story that made you decide that you wanted to tell it.

SOFIA COPPOLA: Thank you. I - yeah, I think, like you were saying, Elvis and Priscilla are such huge figures in American culture and folklore. It's kind of the closest we have to royalty. And I realized when I was reading her book how little we know about her. I just - you know, there's these images in my mind of her and her cat eyeliner and her big hair and beauty and glamour, but I didn't know that much, really, about her story. I knew she was much younger. So when I read Priscilla's book, I was really surprised that she was living in Graceland while she was in high school. And I thought, God, all the things we have to go through as a teenager, she was going through while she was living in Graceland with Elvis. And that's just at the time in your life when you're trying to figure out your identity and all these kind of big stages in your life and that she - her book was really relatable because she goes through things that, you know, most girls go through as you grow up, but in such an unusual setting.

MOSLEY: That was such a surprising detail - to know that she was in high school living with Elvis. How much...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Did Priscilla Presley have on the film's storyline? I see that she was one of the executive producers.

COPPOLA: I approached her and asked her if I could option the rights to her book to make a film of it, and she, you know, thought about it and agreed because she was - you know, said that she liked my work and knew that I was - had a sensitive approach. And, you know, she was still very protective, obviously, of the story. And it's very - you know, her life, and it's private. But she wrote this book, and so she agreed. And then she came on as an executive producer, so she was available to me to answer questions and went through the script. And it was really important for me that she felt good about the film, that she felt like it represented her story. So it was the first time that I had to think about not only what I wanted to express as an artist, but also take into consideration how to make sure that it was respectful of her and, you know, accurate to her experience.

MOSLEY: So Priscilla and Elvis met each other in Germany. He was stationed there, of course, during the war. Her parents were there. That's why she was there. Her parents were apprehensive, as any parents would be. And Priscilla says they gave in and let her see Elvis because she threatened to run away if they didn't. But you also reveal, in this very subtle way, something else, and that's the power of celebrity - how we can be wooed by a pop star like Elvis. But then there was another part of it that I was really fascinated by, and it's, like, how members of a network can influence each other. And in this case, it was the military. Was that fascinating...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...To you?

COPPOLA: Yeah. No, that's a really good point because I think - before they met him, they were, like, of - no way. Absolutely not. You know, they were protective parents. But then he came in full uniform with - you know, very respectful with - and spoke to her father. And there was that man-to-man military code, as well as them being so charmed by him. I think he was - must have been so charismatic and, you know, lovable.

And, you know, they didn't strike me - from what she said and what I've read - the kind of parents that were pushing their kid to try to get into Hollywood, like you've heard - you know, some stories. I felt like they were protective but that they were, you know, charmed by him and let up. But I - it sounded like there was a lot of tension of that thing of - you know, which I can imagine I - as a mother of a teen, when your kid is convinced that their whole life will fall apart if they don't get what they want, and you - and you're having to balance that with what's, you know, healthy for them. So I can imagine what a dilemma - but I - it's hard to imagine ever letting your kid go into - you know, move in with a...

MOSLEY: With an adult...

COPPOLA: Pop star.

MOSLEY: A pop star.

COPPOLA: Yeah, an adult.

MOSLEY: A man. It doesn't matter...

COPPOLA: An adult. Yes. Yeah.

MOSLEY: Of course, with today's eyes, most of us would say Elvis groomed Priscilla, and that really comes across in the film, but it's also really remarkable to me that somehow you made a world where there's no judgment in the telling of the story. Elvis is a flawed character, but there's no indictment. And I'm just wondering if it was tricky to do because the mythology around him is so strong.

COPPOLA: Well, I'm glad that you say that because I was trying to handle that delicately and sensitively. And I always went back to Priscilla's story, and I felt like my role was just to explain her experience and always go through her point of view and what it was like for her at that age as a teenager. Imagine if this, you know, huge pop star that you have a crush on or, you know, the sexiest man alive picks you out and, you know, the thrill - what she's feeling - and not to look at it from any other viewpoint.

MOSLEY: Elvis' estate denied the right to use his music, and it kind of seems like that ended up working in your favor. I didn't actually even realize it until after I left the theater.

COPPOLA: Oh, that's good.

MOSLEY: Yeah. How did you work around that?

COPPOLA: You know, I always knew that we might not be able to. So there were a couple of his songs that I had wanted to use, but I always knew that we might have to have backup plans and figure something else out. And because the focus is her story, it's - you know, it's kind of cool that there isn't even Elvis music in it. But I would have liked to have - there's a song, "Pocketful Of Rainbows," of his that I love, that I had listened to a lot during filming that I wanted to use. But, yeah. No, I'd heard that they're very, you know, controlling about the material made on him. And they like to - that they participate in things that they originate, so I understand that they don't want someone else doing their version. But I thought, you know, with Priscilla being such a part of the story, that we might have access.

But I - when we started thinking about the soundtrack, she talks about "Venus" playing in the diner when she first meets a friend of Elvis who brings her over. And so I started listening to that, and that started to be the beginning of our soundtrack with - my husband's band, Phoenix, worked with me, and they thought of doing a instrumental version that became her kind of little-girl theme song in the first part of the story, and then it evolves. And the whole setting of '60s Memphis was something exciting for me because it's sort of exotic. It's not anything familiar with my upbringing.

MOSLEY: Yeah. It - this music wasn't the type of music that you grew up listening to, but you are known for using music in a very interesting way, to kind of use contemporary music to go back in time or different unexpected uses of music. Was there anything in particular with this film that you were, like, I think I want to try this now that we know we can't use Elvis' music?

COPPOLA: Yeah. To me it was just going into that era. I didn't listen to a lot of that music growing up, but I loved - I always loved girl groups and Phil Spector, so that was familiar to me. And so I thought about - that's my favorite of that era. And there's something about the Phil Spector sound that has a - like, a grandeur and this big production and this kind of swelling and strings, and it's really romantic. And I wanted the story to be ultra-romantic of her, you know, first teen love and sort of this fairy tale. It looks, you know, perfect on the outside. And then it sort of melts in the reality of when she goes into this world. And it has an "Alice In Wonderland" feeling to me, her time in Graceland.

MOSLEY: I see that, yeah.

COPPOLA: So I was thinking about that kind of Phil Spector sound. And then I remembered the Ramones recorded an album with him, and I love that song. So to me, that - they all have that kind of - that through line of a sound in common. But it always - to me, it's always important that the emotion - that the music underlines the emotion, and when Phoenix suggested "Crimson And Clover," like, to me, that's such a goosebumps moment after her first kiss that it has to be really epic. So it was really fun to piece it together.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Sofia Coppola. We're talking with her about her new film, "Priscilla," which she wrote and directed. It's based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir, "Elvis And Me." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF THIRD WORLD LOVE'S "SEFARAD")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. And today we're talking to Sofia Coppola about her new film, "Priscilla," which is a coming-of-age account of Priscilla Presley's years with Elvis Presley, who began seeing her when she was 14 and he was 24. This is Coppola's eighth feature film. Some of her other films include "The Virgin Suicides," "Marie Antoinette" and "Lost In Translation," which she won an Oscar for in 2003 for Best Original Screenplay. Sofia Coppola's films often deal with themes of loneliness, wealth, privilege, isolation, femininity and adolescence in America.

Sofia, I read it wasn't easy to fund this film. I think people might actually be surprised by that. Is it true that you had to slash 10 pages from the script?

COPPOLA: Yeah. That was one of the hardest things I ever did. It was a couple of weeks before shooting, and my producer said we have to cut a week out of the schedule and we have to - yeah - cut out 10 pages. And I was like, what? It was so, you know, hard to do. But actually, it was a great exercise. Later, it all worked out. Like, we were able to piece it together, and in a way, it was like doing the editing beforehand. So it was one of those things that was challenging, but it ended up, you know, being a good thing. But there was one scene in the book where she describes riding a motorcycle with Elvis and all the guys riding - she had a Honda and she was, like, eight months pregnant, and she was trying to keep up with them and still be fun. Even though she was eight months pregnant, she was going to ride a motorcycle with them. And I just loved the visual of that. And just that she was always trying to be the ideal woman at every stage.

MOSLEY: That is definitely the thing that we take away is there was just a yearning to belong...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Which is also a teenage thing, too, this - wherever you're in, whatever environment, you want to be a part of that ecosystem, that...

COPPOLA: That's so...

MOSLEY: ...Group.

COPPOLA: Yeah. That's so true. It's so true at that age. And I think she was just kind of coming in to, you know, being a woman. And so she was wanting so much to be - he had such strong ideas of the ideal woman, and she was trying to be that for him and always trying to kind of reach that unattainable role in his eyes. And I was so impressed that she had the strength to leave him when she did as a, you know, a young woman, because she, you know, her formative years were so centered around being Mrs. Elvis Presley.

MOSLEY: This was something that felt like maybe an evolution to the stories that you tell, because basically she's a young woman who outgrows - I mean, she's outgrowing her teenage fantasy. She finds a way to free herself from this larger-than-life man. And so many of your other movies, I'm thinking about "Marie Antoinette," for instance, it acknowledges the powerful men, but the women are really never able to get away.

COPPOLA: Yeah. That's true.

MOSLEY: Was that something you identified for yourself in this film and in this storyline, you being interested in it?

COPPOLA: Yeah. I loved - that was a big part of it to me that she left. I was so struck by that, especially at that time. It was so much harder than it is today. And I - you know, I have friends, their mothers went through divorce in the early '70s and how difficult it was to divorce a powerful man, especially if she had no income of her own. And to have that strength that she knew that she had to find her own identity outside of him and, you know, and make the life that was right for her and her daughter, I was really impressed by that.

MOSLEY: Hair and makeup played such a huge part in us understanding where we were in the story as - in watching the film and really, the story of them, period. Like, when you look back at photos and video, we...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Always can orient ourselves based on how they look.

COPPOLA: Definitely.

MOSLEY: It was - of course, it's always fascinating how interested and involved Elvis was in Priscilla's look - her hair and her makeup and her clothes. Were there any other surprises in the way Elvis perceived or valued aesthetics, or Priscilla's look, that really stood out to you?

COPPOLA: She talks a lot about that in the book, and we show in the film, like, he had really definite ideas of how she should look, and she was almost like this doll to him. And she - I think at first, it was fun. You know, he would take her to these stores with glamorous dresses - and intimidating, but, you know, exciting. And then, like, trying to - I know that thing when you're young, you're trying to be more grown up or fit in with the older kids. And so I, you know, approached it like that. But yeah, he was so particular from his experience in movies, you know, about makeup and whatever. So she was really trying to fit in, as you said, in that world. And I - it was so helpful to see all these photos of her in the different eras and the - and how tall - sometimes the hair would remind me of Marie Antoinette. Like, they got - the hair got really tall, and the - and she's so known for that cat eyeliner. And I - one of the details from the book that I loved that is in the film is that she was putting on her false eyelashes as she was going into labor...

MOSLEY: Yes.

COPPOLA: ...To deliver her baby. And, like, just - yeah, just the commitment to glamour at all times. I think, you know, she was always done. I don't think she ever went downstairs without, you know, full hair and makeup and dressed completely and he - and she said he always came down in a full outfit. Like, he - there was no lounging around and outside.

MOSLEY: That also sounds like something of the time...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...People just dressed all the time, too.

COPPOLA: Yeah. People dressed up to travel, and I loved that the bags matched the shoes. And yeah, it was such a different era. So it was fun to recreate that.

MOSLEY: What was it like casting for Priscilla and Elvis? - because they've been portrayed so much.

COPPOLA: Yeah. It was daunting. I mean, the first thing I thought of is - for "Priscilla" - how am I going to find an actress that can play 14 believably to 28? You know, that...

MOSLEY: Yeah. Yeah.

COPPOLA: ...Range. And it's always important to me that the teenager feel authentic and not - you know, that that's done right. I asked my casting team, you know, for help, and they suggested me meeting Cailee Spaeny because she was an up-and-coming actress that they thought was talented. And I remember seeing her in something else, and I thought - I thought she was, like, 15. I couldn't believe - she has such a baby face. And when I met her, she really looked like a kid. And so - yeah, so I felt like she could pull that off. And because she's in her 20s, I knew that she could, you know, express the older woman. And Kirsten Dunst had just worked with her. And so I asked her, you know, if she liked working with her, and she told me how much she did and how talented she thought she was. So that really gave me the confidence that I felt like that we would work well together because I trust Kirsten so much. And then with Jacob, I thought, no one looks like Elvis. Like, how are we going to do this?

MOSLEY: I know.

COPPOLA: And, yeah, I was asking all my friends, like, if you have any ideas. And a friend of mine said, check out Jacob Elordi.

MOSLEY: Who was on "Euphoria" at the time.

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

COPPOLA: And I hadn't - I had seen one episode with my daughter, but I can't watch it as a mother of a teen.

MOSLEY: I know, right? Yeah.

COPPOLA: Yeah. So I wasn't that familiar with him, but I - you know, I had a sense of him. And then I met him, and he just was so - he was really sweet and thoughtful and very charismatic.

MOSLEY: You brought up Kirsten Dunst, who you've worked with many times before - "The Virgin Suicides," "Marie "Antoinette". And you've also worked a lot with Bill Murray, of course, in "Lost In Translation," "A Very Murray Christmas." I have always been fascinated by people who are able to work with each other over and over again. What is it about these folks that keeps all of you coming back to each other?

COPPOLA: Yeah. I mean, I've loved working with them. And I always have a great experience on set. I just - we always have a really - you know, lucky to have a great team together. And - but I have a special connection with Bill and with Kirsten. And Kirsten, working with her on my first film in "Virgin Suicides," we just, you know, formed a bond that I always love to work with her and always am excited about projects that I can do with her. And she just has a way of expressing some side of myself or something I'm thinking about in a way that is very - we barely have to say. She just knows. She just gets it. And we have a shorthand. And I just - and I love her sensibility and her sense of humor and how she - it's just fun to see what she does with the material. And we, you know, kind of grew up together in our career, life and as people. I met her when I was 29, and now we both - in that time have had kids, and it's fun to see her now, you know, be a mother. And so she's like a little sister.

And Bill is just someone that, you know, really took a chance on me with "Lost In Translation" and just, you know, really brought so much to the story that I was like - I just said I wasn't going to make that movie if he wasn't going to do it. And I pursued tracking him down for, like, a year. And he finally met with me and agreed to come to Tokyo for this crazy short shoot. We were, like, up all night shooting in the hotel so we wouldn't disturb guests. And it was just an adventure. And he really just brought so much to it. And so I'm always grateful. And now I'm happy to have him be someone in my life that I can count on.

MOSLEY: Yeah. I can't get enough of that story about how you were so nervous that Bill Murray wouldn't show up for the "Lost In Translation" filming in...

COPPOLA: I know.

MOSLEY: ...Tokyo that - but even before that, the part of the story that I think I loved the most, or it cracks me up, is - I don't even know if it's true - but that you were trying to get in touch with him. You could not get in touch with him. You really had envisioned him for this film - that you saw, like, Bob Costas on a plane?

COPPOLA: Yes.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

COPPOLA: That's true. I was so desperate. I spent, like, a year - I made a little kind of video diary that I have called Waiting For Bill, and it was - I was just, like, obsessed and asking anyone I knew, how can I - he didn't have an agent, and I - he at the time had this 800 number where you could leave messages.

MOSLEY: Yeah.

COPPOLA: And then I remember - yeah - sitting - like, after, like, months and months of trying to track him down, sitting by Bob Costas and thinking like, well, maybe if - sports. Maybe he knows him through golf.

MOSLEY: (Laughter).

COPPOLA: Like, do you know Bill Murray? I was just, like, a crazy person at that point. And luckily, my friend Mitch Glazer, who's a writer and an old friend of Bill's, looked at some pages I had and thought it was something interesting for him and introduced us. And I always remember the first time - he was with him at dinner, and he said, oh, you know, Sofia wants to meet you. And he - I just got a call out of the blue saying, can you come over right now and meet us at this restaurant? I'm here with Bill in New York. And I, like, ran over. I had someone, like, that would babysit my phone. When I was in a class. I was taking an acting class...

MOSLEY: Wow. Yeah.

COPPOLA: ...Working on the script. I had someone - I forgot about this - someone had to babysit my phone outside the class in case Bill called. Like, it was so...

MOSLEY: (Laughter).

COPPOLA: ...It was really the focus of my life for that year, and I was so happy to finally meet him. And he said I - he might be inclined, you know, to do it. And I remember he was wearing a seersucker suit. And I'll always remember this moment. And then he - yeah - he kind of said that, yeah, he would think about it and that he thought he would do it, but we never had a contract, or he wouldn't let us book his flight or anything. So there was that moment where I was spending all this money in Tokyo, starting the production just on the hope that Bill was going to show up. And then when my producer - I got this call, I said, the Eagle has landed. And Bill showed up in Tokyo. I was like, thank God.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Sofia Coppola. She's talking with us about her new movie, "Priscilla," which she wrote and directed. It's based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir, "Elvis And Me." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. I'm Tonya Mosley, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF AIR'S "ALONE IN KYOTO")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Tonya Mosley, and today we're talking to Sofia Coppola about her new film "Priscilla," which is a coming-of-age depiction of Priscilla Presley's years with Elvis Presley. The two met when she was 14 and he was 24. "Priscilla" is Coppola's eighth feature film. Some of her other films include "The Virgin Suicides," "Marie-Antoinette" and "Lost In Translation," which she won an Oscar for in 2003. Sofia Coppola's films often deal with themes of loneliness, wealth and privilege, isolation, femininity and adolescence in America. This fall, she published her first book called "Archive," which covers her career in film. It's constructed from Coppola's personal collection of photographs and other archival materials, including annotated scripts and unseen behind-the-scenes documentation.

You remarked, Sofia, that you and Priscilla have some similarities in that you both grew up in a bubble of celebrity - of course, in different ways - with you being the daughter of famous filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. What are the parts of Priscilla's story that felt familiar in your own life?

COPPOLA: Yeah. I mean, I can't imagine anything on the scale of what she went through to be around, you know, someone so famous. And that must have been such a shock 'cause her childhood was nothing like that before. You know, I know what it's like - the difference between a celebrated public person and then, in private, they're a normal person. And I'm seeing the way people acted around my dad or going to the Cannes Film Festival as a kid. So I had some sense of how people act around celebrity and, of course, nothing to the scale of what Priscilla experienced.

And I remember talking to my mom about how - you know, some of her frustrations of being a woman of that era. And it interested me because Priscilla was the same generation of my mom and the idea that - you know, my mom said that you were, you know - to have a successful husband and a beautiful home - that was supposed to be enough to fulfill a woman. And she, you know, felt so confused that she had, you know, creative expression that she wanted to realize and, you know, what was wrong with her that she wasn't happy with just, you know, having a family and a beautiful home? - and just to know how different the roles of women are. And when Elvis tells Priscilla that she can't - she wants to get a job and he says, no, I need you to stay at home. You can't.

MOSLEY: Right.

COPPOLA: You know, and that that was, you know, just what was expected of women at that time.

MOSLEY: Do you see your mom differently now that you're a parent? Your mom traveled with your dad when he made...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Films. And do you have thoughts on what that must have been like for her?

COPPOLA: Yeah. You know, I appreciate - she always brought all our stuff with us. Like, we lived in Tulsa, Okla., during "The Outsiders," and we weren't there that long - maybe, like, six months. And she brought all my furniture and all my stuff and, like, hamster cages - like, everything. And I just think, like, so that I - she always kept our childhood really grounded. And I feel so grateful to that 'cause it must have been a pain, like, that she - but she really kind of like, you know, would go to extreme lengths to make sure that we felt like we were at home wherever we were.

MOSLEY: Right. Because your father, as a very successful filmmaker, traveled a lot of places. And you all always traveled with him. That was something that was important to him.

COPPOLA: Yeah. Yeah, we always went on location, which was always fun and exciting 'cause we lived in all these places. But I would - I was homesick, too, when I would miss - you know, we would go to local schools too. So I was always lost at school. But it was - yeah, it was always an adventure. And it related to Priscilla being an Army brat, 'cause that's how I grew up, always going to be the new kid at school. So I could relate to that. And now I'm so grateful that I - that they brought me to set all the time because that's how I learned how to make movies.

MOSLEY: I know you and your father talked a lot about filmmaking early on. Do you all still talk about it?

COPPOLA: Yeah. It's really impressive that he never tires of the subject. He's so - still so enthusiastic. And every time I see him and he's like, I'm recutting one of my - right now he's recutting "One From The Heart." And he's, like, discovered something new about editing. Like, he's - I've just never seen someone that's so excited about the medium that he's working in. So he's really given that love to us.

MOSLEY: When you were younger, were there any films that you really gravitated towards that you really loved or that your father introduced you to?

COPPOLA: You know, my dad was always watching kind of world cinema, foreign films that he loved. So we were always exposed to that. We were, you know, just around. And he was watching a lot of Kurosawa films and, you know, Italian and the French New Wave. So I can't think specifically - I remember seeing "Breathless" as a teenager and thinking it was really cool. And that's still something that I reference when I'm, you know, thinking about cinematography. And I still think about the shots of them kind of around the apartment. It feels very intimate. And there's something about when you hold a camera close to an actor - has a different feeling than if you're far away with a tighter lens. There's, like, the physical closeness. That's something that I definitely think about.

MOSLEY: It seems like we see it in your work.

COPPOLA: Yeah. Oh, yeah, I think so. That - just that sort of intimacy and people in their - yeah, at home and the way they are when they're alone.

MOSLEY: Let's take a short break. If you're just joining us, my guest is filmmaker Sofia Coppola. She's talking with us about her new movie "Priscilla," which she wrote and directed. It's based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir "Elvis And Me." We'll continue our conversation after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOTHERINGAY SONG, "THE SEA (LIVE)")

MOSLEY: This is FRESH AIR, and today we're talking to Sofia Coppola about her new film "Priscilla," which is a coming-of-age account of Priscilla Presley's years with Elvis, who began seeing her when she was 14 and he was 24. This is Coppola's eighth feature film, and some of her other films include "The Virgin Suicides," "Marie-Antoinette" and "Lost In Translation," which she won an Oscar for in 2003 for best original screenplay. This fall, she published her first book, called "Archive," which covers her career in film. It's constructed from Coppola's personal collection of photographs and other archival materials.

Sofia, how did you come up with the idea for your book "Archive"?

COPPOLA: You know, every time I finish a film, I kind of throw all the stuff from my desk and the materials from prep in a box. And I guess during the pandemic, I was looking for some photos and started going through them. And I found all these packets from a Japanese one-hour photo place, all these packets of photos from "Lost In Translation." And I thought...

MOSLEY: Yeah.

COPPOLA: ...I should do something with them and make a scrapbook because I felt like, oh, now, there's been enough films that I hoped that young filmmakers or young people that are interested in my work, it might be interesting to see the references and where things - you know, how things were made a little bit. And for me, it's fun to see continuity photos or Polaroids and location photos, and also share the work of all my collaborators, you know, to share the work that we all did together.

MOSLEY: Yeah. I mean, you mentioned your young fans. I heard there was a line wrapped around the corner during a recent book signing here in LA, and most of the people in line were young women who were deeply moved. They feel seen by your work. Why do you think generations of new fans continue to connect with you so deeply?

COPPOLA: Yeah, I was so touched by that. It was so moving to see these young women because I made those films for young women. And at the time, not very many people saw them. They got very small releases. They weren't really - they didn't really connect at the time. And...

MOSLEY: You're talking about, like, "Virgin Suicides" and "Marie Antoinette?"

COPPOLA: Yes. Yeah. Yeah, those were - they had very, the releases did not - were not successful. They weren't really seen. And then, I remember when I was working on "Bling Ring," Leslie Mann told me that she wanted to do my film and that her daughter loved "Virgin Suicides." And I thought, how does her daughter even know about that movie? It wasn't - she wasn't even born then. And it was really cool to discover there was a whole new generation that, you know, had been seeing the films because of the internet. And then, yeah, recently just, you know, that those films have had another life just means so much to me, because I did make them for young women, and the fact that they still speak to young women today is so cool.

MOSLEY: Have you watched any of the TikTok tribute edits? You know, people do edits of different films. There are so many edits of "Virgin Suicides."

COPPOLA: Oh, really?

MOSLEY: I mean, teenage girls are still very obsessed with it.

COPPOLA: Oh, that's so cool. No, my daughters kind of roll their eyes and they're like, oh, you're trending on TikTok again.

MOSLEY: (Laughter).

COPPOLA: And I - but I don't - yeah, no, I have to ask them to show me. They showed me some "Priscilla" ones the other night, so that was fun to see, but I'm kind of oblivious to TikTok. But I'm happy that the mood of it still feels resonant.

MOSLEY: Has being a mother of daughters shifted or changed your point of view about the interior lives of teenagers? I mean, you're seeing it now from different vantage points as a mom.

COPPOLA: Yeah, it's so interesting. I mean, I love teenage girls. And it's fun to pass by their rooms and see these still lives that look like, you know, still lives in "Virgin Suicides," with, you know, perfume bottles. And, you know, it reminds me of that age, which I still feel connected to, but obviously it's so different now. And I think when I was working on "Priscilla," it definitely helped to have both perspectives. And when I was filming the scene of her first kiss, I was so glad that Cailee's in her 20s because I could never - I would never have been able to direct a, you know, teenage girl with this older guy, even though at the time, I know that feeling, that you don't think. But as a mother, I'm looking at them in a protective way, so yeah. And it was - but it was interesting that I was, you know, doing these scenes with a rebellious daughter while I'm, you know, living in a - at home, I'm a mom of teenage girls.

MOSLEY: So many young women - and I'm saying this because I have a teenage daughter in my house, and she's kind of obsessed with you, by the way. So..

COPPOLA: Oh, wow. I'm so flattered.

MOSLEY: Yeah. But, you know, what really seems especially true is that through your work, young women see a pathway to finding their point of view. That's another part of it.

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Like, you give them language and aesthetics for that. And I'm just wondering, for you, as someone who has had to really break through, really, like, that nepotism baby talk...

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: ...Found the clarity to find your point of view?

COPPOLA: Yeah. I mean, I remember in my 20s really trying to figure out what I was - what I wanted to make. And when I read the book of "Virgin Suicides," I had such a clear idea of how it should look and feel and what I wanted to express in it. And I had a great photo teacher, Paul Jasmin from - who was teaching at an art center, who was one of the first people that - I was taking photos and he was saying - and told me that I had a unique point of view, which no one outside of my family had ever told me that. And it gave me the confidence that, oh, maybe my point of view is worthwhile.

And so I started working on "Virgin Suicides," which was related to the kind of photography that I was doing at the time. And also, spending time in Japan in the early '90s, there was a photographer, Hiromix, and a lot of this kind of girly culture and these kind of snapshots of girls in their rooms. And that world was inspiring to me and felt - I felt connected to it, but I wasn't seeing it in any movies. I never saw teenage girls depicted - or rarely, I'll say, rarely depicted in a way that I felt was relatable and kind of true to that experience for me. So yeah, the fact that there's, you know, girls and young women that feel seen and they - a lot of them are telling me they want to be filmmakers. And it's so exciting that I think, oh, my God, there's going to be a huge wave of all these films made by these young women that, you know, I can't wait to see.

MOSLEY: Are you still as innately curious about their interior lives in the same way that you were earlier in your career? Or are there other themes that you're also curious about these days?

COPPOLA: I've always liked stories about identity and how people become who they are, so I think it can manifest in different ways. But I don't know, I feel a connection to that, but I do also feel like I need to grow up and do other subject matter. And...

MOSLEY: Really, yeah?

COPPOLA: I don't know, I just - I try to be...

MOSLEY: What does growing up mean, yeah?

COPPOLA: Yeah, I don't know. I do have older - and I'd love to - I always want to find other things to do with Kirsten. And, no, I'm interested in different characters, not just that side. But the part of it I like is, I always like stories about transformation, and that's such an extreme time of transformation. And also, I think, you know, you have more time and emotional space to really, you know, think about deep things, where - I don't know - when you're older, you're kind of busy doing life.

MOSLEY: It's true. You know, one thing I was interested in knowing more about is, when you were reading Priscilla Presley's memoir, it was at the height of lockdown, right?

COPPOLA: Yeah.

MOSLEY: Is it right that you had COVID when you were reading it?

COPPOLA: Oh, you know what? I guess it was two years ago. It was - I was at home with COVID and just, like, in bed for a week by myself, like, contemplating life in those kind of breaks that you do, which after that I was like, I have to do that more often, where you just take a sick week and just take the week off to be quiet and think about what you really want to do. And I was working on another project that I'd spent, really, the past two years working on. And it was a big, ambitious, expensive Edith Wharton story, and it was all falling apart. And I just was like, oh, I have to muster up the energy to keep going. And then I just kind of paused, and one of my good friends said to me, like, you need to go back to being a director. And, you know, like, you've been spending the last few being a producer trying to get some thing together and the financing. And, like, you need to do what you - like, do what you do. And when I was thinking - I had been thinking a little bit about this - Priscilla's story. Then I thought, in that moment, like, yeah, I could see exactly how to make this. And just - I got really excited about the actual making of it as a director and the visuals. And I remember calling my agent saying, I want to do this and just switching gears and just jumping into this.

MOSLEY: Yeah. I'm just very fascinated by space - like, allowing you the space to think deeply about, like, what is the project that I'm going to take on, and how am I going to take it on? I'm hearing from you, too, that there is a big difference in the type of mind you need as a producer versus a director. Sounds like a director is when you get in the creative.

COPPOLA: Definitely, definitely. I like both, and there's the - and I do the producing side because I like to have control so that I have, you know, the most creativity to make what I want to make. But there - it's a different mode in that the producer has to be practical and the - as a director, you're just interpreting things in a visual way. And it's more intuitive and emotional and about the actors and the - creating the world, which I love to do. So, yeah, it's important to have that quiet moment to figure out what you really want to do, 'cause I never want to do anything that I don't connect with. But my mom told me this - I don't know it exactly, but this Agnes Martin quote that she loved, who was a painter that my mom admires. And she told me recently that she was obsessed with this quote. And it was, do what you want to do, don't do what you don't want to do, and make the space or the quiet to hear that, which I thought is such a good thing to remember.

MOSLEY: Yeah. You know, what's really interesting is this is the fourth time that you've been on FRESH AIR. And it is so - it was great actually to listen back to your old interviews because...

COPPOLA: Oh, wow.

MOSLEY: ...It really feels like we're following you through every stage of your career. You're very far from the nepotism baby moniker. I mean, you are - you have a name in your own right. I mean, I'm just wondering, if you're looking at your career in phases, what phase would you say that you're in now?

COPPOLA: Yeah. You know, I don't - usually I'm just so busy trying to make stuff and fighting to get it made that I don't pause and look at it. And by making this book, it was nice to just have a moment where I looked, like, wow, I have a whole body of work I didn't realize. Like, you don't usually sit back and see that. But, yeah, I'm so grateful because it was really - I remember it was a lot of work and really daunting in my - beginning of my career to be taken seriously and to make a name for myself and not - you know, and I was dismissed a lot. And I just kind of ignored it and kept going. And, like, so to be at this point where people respect my work and see me that way is really - it's really gratifying. And that's why I get annoyed with the nepo baby thing because I worked really hard to be seen as my own person, and it means a lot to me.

MOSLEY: Sofia Coppola, I really enjoyed talking with you. Thank you so much for this conversation.

COPPOLA: Thank you. It's been great to talk to you. I appreciate it.

MOSLEY: Award-winning filmmaker Sofia Coppola. We spoke with her about her new film "Priscilla." Coming up, critic Ken Tucker has an appreciation of rock singer-songwriter Dwight Twilley, who died last month at the age of 72. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF ROBBEN FORD AND BILL EVANS' "PIXIES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.