Sofia Coppola spills on female director’s ‘tiny fraction’ out of massive budget

Sofia Coppola is open about working with small budgets because, as a female filmmaker, she often does not receive the large funding that her male colleagues do.

In an interview with BBC News, the director of Priscilla Presley revealed that the film's $20 million budget forced her to be inventive in order to create a Priscilla Presley biopic that is based on the biography Elvis and Me.

“I just see all these men getting hundreds of millions of dollars, and then I’m fighting for a tiny fraction of that,” she said. “I think it’s just left over from the way the culture of that business is. It’s frustrating, but I’m always fighting to get it, and I’m just happy to get to make my movies independently and find people that believe in them.”

The director acknowledged that there is a benefit to the situation, despite how annoying it can be: higher-ups don't have as much involved in her projects, so she doesn't have to deal with as much criticism.

“There’s a challenge and a freedom in making things small because if you have a big budget, you have a lot of input from studio executives, and I would never be able to make a movie like that,” she continued. “So, I have that freedom, and then you have to be really crafty, and it was really hard, but I had the best team.”

Coppola credits her creative department heads for taking what they had and running with it because she and her crew were able to construct numerous outfits and reuse a lot of sets. 

The inability to incorporate Elvis Presley's music into the project was another problem they encountered. The director of Marie Antoinette had her sights set on three of the King of Rock and Roll's hits, but she was aware that her chances of obtaining the rights were somewhat slim. She decided to listen to a song by another renowned artist instead.

“To me, it is really important to have Dolly Parton at the end, to have a woman’s voice at the end,” Coppola explained of the film playing out to Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”

Priscilla, which features Jacob Elordi and Cailee Spaeny, is currently streaming on Prime Video.