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Following the death of Lisa Marie Presley in January, Riley Keough is now the eldest direct descendent of Elvis Presley. The King’s granddaughter has had a tough last few years having buried her brother, great-grandmother and mother. She and her half-sister twins Harper and Finley Lockwood have since inherited Graceland and all its contents to continue their famous grandfather’s legacy. Yet despite growing up surrounded by musicians, Riley has taken more to the acting side of things.
The 34-year-old’s latest project is Amazon miniseries Daisy Jones and Six, based on the novel of the same name by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Riley stars in the title role in a story inspired by Fleetwood Mac that follows a fictional 1970s band in a documentary style.
Daisy Jones is somewhat like Stevie Nicks and Janis Joplin and is a self-destructive drug addict with incredible musical talent. Despite the parallels – including the time period – with her grandfather, it’s more her family all being musicians that influenced her take on Daisy than Elvis himself. Yet incredibly before the film she’d never picked up a guitar or really given singing a go.
Riley told Entertainment Weekly: “It was an interesting thing coming to work and telling my guitar teacher that I’ve never picked up a guitar. He was like, ‘What? That sounds crazy to me.’ And it is kind of crazy (laughs). But I always have been more interested in films. So, me and Sam [Claflin] had to start from the bottom and learn everything.”
Of course, it’s sometimes easy to forget that Elvis was a movie star as well as singer, so she’s certainly following him in that vein. And although being rock royalty wasn’t discussed with showrunner Scott Neustadter, being The King’s granddaughter did see a scene change.
READ MORE: ‘I miss you’ Elvis granddaughter’s touching tribute to brother Ben
It turns out that this one instance was more about stopping the audience from being distracted than anything connected to Riley’s performance.
Scott shared: “At the Formosa Cafe, we were going to film in a booth. And literally, they have like a shrine to Elvis over the booth and we were like, ‘Let’s move that [scene] over here [laughs]. It’s a little distracting.'”
Daisy Jones and the Six is streaming on Prime Video now.
