Elvis Presley wasn’t only the King of Rock he also had an impactful acting career.
In a new documentary, Return of the King: The Fall & Rise of Elvis Presley, he explained that his on-screen movie roles, which totaled up to 30 films, didn’t craft the correct look for him. “Hollywoods image of me was wrong and I knew it, and I couldnt do anything about it, he said in one clip.
Elvis went on to explain that he felt trapped and “obligated” to participate in directions from Hollywood that he “didn’t fully believe in.” In fact, he wasn’t given the space to veto decisions, so they were made for him, including final copies of the scripts. “They couldnt have paid me no amount of money in the world to make me feel I had any satisfaction inside,” he said.
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The rock legend said he had a realization, explaining, “This is not good for me, and so I became very discouraged.”
Director Jason Hehir reflected on his reason for exploring Elvis as his muse. “I’ve always been captivated by stories that humanize iconic figures, and Elvis may be the most iconic of all. He was a cultural lightning rod in the 1950s, but by the mid-60s he was culturally irrelevant. As a fan I’ve always wondered why he didn’t do more to satisfy his musical ambitions, and as a filmmaker I’ve always wondered how much it hurt Elvis the human to see Elvis the icon fade into obscurity,” he told PEOPLE.
“I originally pitched this film as a sports movie: this is an aging superstar with one final chance to throw a Hail Mary and prolong his dying career. If he fails, he’s finished. If he succeeds, he continues on. Not only did he succeed, he delivered one of the most indelible performances in music history. This is the story of a stunning triumph amidst overwhelming adversity.”
It wasn’t just Elvis who recognized how others controlled his career. His ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, also confessed in the documentary she felt they were doing him an injustice. In the 1967 musical Double Trouble, he sang the children’s song Old MacDonald Had a Farm, a choice Priscilla pushed back on.
That to me is a crime, she said. It is a crime. To put him in that situation and sing that song. It made him a laughingstock. And he knew it.
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