Sofia Coppola's new movie is about the relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley -- from Priscilla's point of view. The two met when she was 14 and he was 24. Coppola makes films about the internal lives of young women, including The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and Lost in Translation, which she won an Oscar for in 2003. This fall she published her first book, Archive, which covers her career in film. Also, rock critic Ken Tucker has an appreciation of a musician you may never have heard of: singer-songwriter Dwight Twilley. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Tanya Moseley.
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 8th feature film.
Some of her others include the Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and lost in translation, what she won an Oscar for in 2003 for best original screenplay.
Sophia 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.
Thank you.