In the last three years, there have been two major Elvis Presley movies: one focused on the King of Rock and Roll and the other on his ex-wife, Priscilla Presley.
Baz Luhrmann’s glitzy Elvis biopic almost won titular star Austin Butler an Oscar, in an official retelling of the music icon’s life retold by Tom Hanks’ Machiavellian manager Colonel Tom Parker.
Meanwhile, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla movie, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, starred Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as the showbiz couple in a raw retelling that wasn’t given permission to use the King’s music.
Before her death in 2023, the couple’s daughter Lisa Marie Presley praised the Elvis film and slammed the script of the Priscilla biopic for depicting her father’s personality and actions in a negative light.
Yet Elvis’ step-brother and close confidant, David Stanley, one of the Memphis Mafia bodyguards who discovered the King’s body, feels the exact opposite about the films.
Speaking exclusively with Daily Express from the very Las Vegas stage that the King performed all his residency shows, David said of the Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis: “I was disappointed and ashamed, because they made it about Colonel Parker. Hollywood made him the villain. He was a tough businessman but he wasn’t the animal that that film depicted him to be. I knew Colonel Parker from the time I was 4 years old until the day he died. He was a businessman and was very serious about what he did. And maybe he made some decisions he wished he’d done different and Elvis too. But they were a good partnership and a good pair. Shame on Hollywood for depicting Colonel Parker as the devil and making Elvis look like a wimp. I thought the recreations of the Elvis scenes were good, y’know the concert stuff. I thought the kid [Austin Butler] who played Elvis was good. Nobody is Elvis [though].”
David continued: “And then there’s the Priscilla movie. People dislike her because of her story. I saw the movie. I’m one of the few that know what really happened and I thought she was right on.” On Lisa Marie disagreeing with him on the movies, he said: “Lisa only knew her dad until she was 9 years old. Her mother was there a lot longer. I was there a lot longer.” Elvis’ step-brother confirmed that the film’s depiction of her joining the King in his prescription drug taking and getting her dresses to match his clothing was accurate.
He said: “When Priscilla and Elvis broke up, I stayed in touch with her. I mean, I was the one moving the dresses around in Vegas… So I liked her movie. She showed Elvis throwing a chair at her and he’s angry. Real mad. He used to pop like that. I mean I saw that more than once.” But the Memphis Mafia member added that the King would then turn around and apologise, before gifting something extravagant like car which be the “band-aid” after the altercation.
My Brother Elvis: An Evening with David Stanley, which includes a tour of the backstage where The King performed, is held monthly at Westgate, Las Vegas, and tickets can be booked here.