The Whole Presley Family Praises Austin Butler's Performance as Elvis, Calling It An "Emotional Experience"

Elvis brought up a lot of emotions for many members of Elvis Presley's family, including the music legend's granddaughter Riley Keough.

While speaking at the Variety Women in Motion panel during the Cannes Film Festival — where her directorial debut, War Pony, was being screened — the actress and filmmaker said "it was a very emotional experience" watching Elvis, starring Austin Butler as the iconic singer.

Keough, 32, added of the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film, which she watched with mom Lisa Marie Presley and grandmother Priscilla Presley, "It wasn't like I distrusted Baz in any way, but you're protective over your family."

She also shared that she was "emotional immediately," from the very beginning of the film, which is premiering at Cannes: "I started crying 5 minutes in and didn't stop."

"There's a lot of family trauma and generational trauma that started around then for our family," Keough continued. "I felt honored they worked so hard to really get his essence, to feel his essence. Austin captured that so beautifully."

WOW. I'm not sure you could receive a greater compliment as an actor. Truly, who cares about the Oscars, I would care more about tears and an emotionally positive reaction from the real life family of the character I am portraying. As many should know by now, Austin Butler (certified hottie) is playing Elvis Presley in the new "Elvis" movie and from the trailers and clips I've seen, he's right on the money. I grew up in a big Elvis house, my Nana loved him and my parents had "Can't Help Falling In Love," as their wedding song. I always think its hard to have other actors portray a MEGA STAR in a movie, and maybe the only one I've seen really nail it in a convincing way is Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash. Renee Zellweger gets a tip for Judy Garland, too. It looks like we may have found our new Joaquin in Austin. Elvis' life was obviously transcendent and tragic, but its hard to wrap your mind around how he could still have such close living relatives as a wife, daughter and granddaugter who are old enough to appreciate a film about their husband/father/grandfather. Elvis died before my parents even met each other, so he feels incredibly far removed from "reality" for me. I'm constantly forgetting that one of my favorite present day actresses, Riley Keough, is just....ELVIS' GRANDDAUGHTER! Time is weird, man.

Priscilla, 76, gave the film her seal of approval in an Instagram post earlier this month, saying Lisa Marie, 54, is thrilled with the way the drama, which focuses on Elvis and his relationship with his manager Colonel Parker, has turned out.

"I've seen Elvis the film, I watched the trailer over a dozen times," Priscilla began the caption of her post, alongside a trailer for the movie. "But the words I heard from my daughter on how much she loved the film and that Riley will love it too when she sees it brought tears."

Noting that she "relived every moment in this film," Priscilla continued, "it took me a few days to overcome the emotions as it did with Lisa."

I can't wait to see the movie. I saw the preview for the first time in theaters (before seeing The Northman which actually fucking sucked) and I've been thinking about it ever since. Now with the stamp of approval from the immediate offspring, I've got my eyes on opening night.