No Barbie for Sofia Coppola: “I would be incapable of making a big studio film”

The director encourages the creative freedom afforded by small budgets and independence.

Questioned by the BBC on his next film, Priscilla (in theaters January 3), the filmmaker Sofia Coppola explains her views on independent cinema and low budgets, which she considers to be true freedom. “There’s a challenge and a freedom in doing small things, because if you have a big budget, you have a lot of input from studio executives, and I wouldn’t be incapable of making a movie like that” she explains.

Concerning Priscillawhich tells the story of the married life of Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny) and Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), the director talks about the creativity and resourcefulness needed to bring a low-budget film like this to fruition: “You have to be very clever and it was very hard, but I had the best team… We were able to reuse the sets and I don’t even know how we were able to make so many costumes!” she says. “It was all hands on deck and there were just some really creative department heads”, assures the filmmaker.

Before she died, Lisa Marie Presley was furious with Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla

But creative independence also means sacrifice. With a budget of less than $20 million, Sofia Coppola had to give up shooting on film to favor digital, due to lack of resources: “I would have liked to shoot on film, but we filmed on digital because we had to go so fast.” Being the daughter of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, a true monument of American cinema, does not provide funding for his daughter’s projects. She misses the uphill struggle she has to go through to get a fraction of what other male directors get more easily.

“I see all these men getting hundreds of millions of dollars and I’m fighting for a tiny fraction of that. I think it’s just a legacy of the culture of this industry. It’s frustrating, but I’m still fighting for it and I’m just happy that I can make my films independently and find people who believe in it. I’m glad there are more and more women directors, but it’s still such a small percentage”, she concludes bitterly.

In this context, the success of barbieby Greta Gerwig, also from independent cinema and whose first blockbuster earned more than $1 billion at the box office this year, is an exception.

Priscilla is told from the point of view of its protagonist, Priscilla Presley, still a minor when she met Elvis. While waiting to see it in good conditions, starting next week in the cinema, here is a preview in the trailer: