The Stunning Transformation Of Olivia DeJonge

Pre-production for Baz Luhrmann's "Elvis" began in 2019, according to Movie Insider. DeJonge was already a full-fledged adult with more than a decade of acting experience under her belt. Nevertheless, she likened herself at the start of filming to a "newborn," per Fashion Magazine. Likewise, in an interview with Backstage, she recalled how, coming into the production, she felt like "Bambi." Moreover, she questioned whether she was mature enough in her womanhood to portray Priscilla Presley, whom DeJonge has intimated she views as a veritable icon of femininity.

Accordingly, it may have been comforting to DeJonge that she got to shoot her scenes in linear fashion — i.e., at the start of production, she was playing Priscilla as a woman younger than even herself, as she recalled to Backstage. Nevertheless, this also had the effect of intensifying DeJonge's "emotional journey," as she puts it. "There's a before 'Elvis' [me] and there's an after 'Elvis' [me]," she explained to Fashion Magazine. "It's a pivotal moment in my life.

DeJonge has also compared the three-years-long journey that comprised the making of "Elvis" to birthing a baby. "We're all like, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming," she recalled in an interview with WWD, of the protracted "labor" the production turned out to be thanks to COVID-related delays (per Variety). And for the avoidance of mixed metaphors, it was DeJonge who was delivered "out of the vortex" as "a changed human being."