Three generations of Elvis Presley’s family unite to watch the biopic in his hometown Memphis

Three generations of Elvis Presley’s family united to watch the crooner’s biopic in his hometown Memphis on Saturday night.

In attendance at the special screening were the Blue Suede Shoes singer’s ex-wife Priscilla, 77, their singer daughter Lisa-Marie, 54, and Priscilla’s granddaughter Riley Keough, 33.

The women, all decked out in black finery, posed for a string of photographs ahead of the viewing and were later joined by actor Austin Butler, who plays the titular character.

Also rocking up to watch the biopic, which will hit UK cinemas later this month, were Lisa’s twin girls Harper Vivienne Ann Lockwood and Finley Aaron Love Lockwood, 13.

Speaking about the film, directed by Baz Luhrmann, Riley said: ‘It was a very emotional experience. It’s very intense to watch when it’s your family.

‘I started crying five minutes in and didn’t stop. There’s a lot of family trauma and generational trauma that started around then for our family.’

As he takes on the titular role, Austin spoke of his all-consuming approach in taking on such an iconic figure.

He said: ‘I had about a year and a half before we started shooting. It feels like climbing Mount Everest, it’s just so mammoth of a task so, for me, I just had to take it one step at a time.

‘I started with absorbing everything. I watched every bit of footage that’s out there, I watched every interview of his during his entire career and read every book that was written on his life.

‘Then I started to break it up into pieces, so it was figuring out how his voice changed over the years and obsessing about that.

‘It became this two-year obsession where I put the rest of my life on pause. I went through every bit of his being like that. From his spiritual evolution and the way that he moved and how that changed over the years.

‘Really at the core of it all for me it was about stripping away the icon of Elvis or the caricature of him and getting down to the humanity of him. That’s what I found really fascinating.’

Speaking about the performance nature of the role, taking to a stage and putting on a show as Elvis, Austin said: ‘I was really nervous for those performances because it’s something I’ve never done before.

‘I spoke to Rami Malek beforehand, and he told me, “I believe those days will probably be the most fun days you have, “and it turned out to be exactly that.

‘The first performance we filmed was the ’68 Special and so I’m walking out in the black leather and I was so nervous beforehand.

‘You do a year and a half of dedicating every day to this and suddenly here’s the moment of truth, where I walk out there in front of everybody and it felt like my career was on the line, this job… it felt like everything was on the line in this moment.

‘I had this moment alone before I went out there and I really just rested in the fact that it was a make-or-break moment in Elvis’s life.

‘His career was on the line. So, it wasn’t a bad thing that I was experiencing that fear and I knew that he was feeling the same thing. I could just take that energy and do what he did which was build a rapport with the audience.’

The film stars Austin and Tom Hanks, who plays his infamous manager Colonel Tom Parker.

There’s a lot of excitement around the Elvis Presley biopic from Australia’s Baz, who is hoping to recreate the buzz he generated when he brought the can-can to Cannes with Moulin Rouge! 20 years ago.

The film chronicles the life and career of Elvis from his early days as a child growing up in Mississippi to his ascent as a rock and roll icon and movie star, along with his complex relationship with his manager.

Elvis hits cinemas on 24 June.