Actress Riley Keough graces the digital cover of Elle

Riley Keough is Elvis Presley's granddaughter. But she is responsible for her increasing fame as an actress herself. And she has just delicately completed the memoirs of her mother, who died in 2023...

The grand finale: In a giant birdcage, wrapped in a fluttering cape, Riley Keough sits on a swing at the end of the Chanel show and sings: “When Doves Cry” by Prince. Suddenly all eyes are on the 35-year-old. A grandiose surprise appearance with which the French fashion house returns to the historic Grand Palais after a four-year break. The US actress hadn't revealed a word about this planned live act when the Elle Zoom interview took place a few days before.

She sits on her hotel bed in Barcelona early in the morning, wearing a white T-shirt and completely without make-up. The day before, filming of her new film “Rosebush Pruning” had just begun. She speaks quietly because husband Ben Smith-Petersen and daughter Tupelo are sleeping next door. Keough named the two-year-old after the Mississippi town where her legendary grandfather Elvis Presley was born.

As the eldest daughter of Elvis' only child - Lisa Marie Presley - Keough was famous before she was even born (like her mother!). And her first magazine cover appeared when she was just a month old: “Elvis' first grandchild. HERE SHE IS!” An exclusive report for which the US magazine People paid $300,000. And even though Elvis died twelve years before she was born, the pop culture icon shaped her life from the beginning. To what extent, however, she only realized late: “Because people never stopped reminding me how crazy my life was!” Because when Keough looks back on her childhood today, she only remembers “... how wonderful the time was. This star hype didn't matter to me at all at the time. We always had a lot of fun. Everything was wild and fun. Looking back, I can hardly believe what we experienced and did and how many places we traveled to! In comparison, my life is pretty quiet today.”

The now published memoir “From Here to the Great Unknown: From Here into the Unknown: Memories” (Penguin Verlag, €28) reveals what it feels like to grow up in such an unusual family. Keough wrote the book with her mother. And it's an amazingly open insight into the lives of two Presley women. With a lot of humor, but also a lot of tragedy. Lisa Marie writes about her time as a Scientology member, her drug addiction, four turbulent marriages and the painful loss of her son Benjamin. Keough's younger brother committed suicide in 2020. It wasn't actually planned that the book became a joint project between mother and daughter. The reason: Lisa Marie was in the middle of the writing process when she died very suddenly in 2023 at the age of 54. Despite the painful loss, Keough “went into this pragmatic mode where you feel a great need to complete what is left unfinished for your mother. I felt almost obliged to finish the book.” She spent hours listening to tape recordings of interviews, memories and thoughts that Lisa Marie had collected and recorded.

Were there still any surprises for her as a daughter? “My mother was – no pun intended – a very open book,” she says, laughing. “I already knew most of the stories from her life. But learning in detail how she felt at certain moments meant a lot to me.” Being able to finish telling her own mother’s story was both a challenge and a gift for Keough. “It was important to me to show them as people with very different facets,” says Keough.

She succeeded wonderfully, without sugarcoating anything. The book goes far beyond the gossip known to the world. Instead, what emerges here is a sensitive woman, not without flaws and very insecure. But also: generous, funny, loyal, passionate and loving! Despite all the warmth, there is always a feeling of loneliness. “Her whole identity was based on being Elvis’ daughter. Finding her own path was very difficult for her. And she didn't enjoy that fame and attention. Quite the opposite,” says Keough. “The most heartbreaking thing for me as a child was seeing how she, who so longed for love and friendship, always had to fight for it. This is probably completely normal when your own father is a legend. And that's not to say that my mother didn't have close relationships in her life. But it was always a struggle.” Lisa Marie was born into a spotlight she didn't choose. But she later made a lot of headlines herself (through her turbulent marriages to Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage).

And how does being famous feel to Keough today? “I've gotten used to it. Plus, it's a lot easier to be Elvis' granddaughter than his daughter. I always took very conscious countermeasures and tried to be myself.” For Keough, staying true to himself meant pursuing a career as an actress very early on. Even though her parents (the father is the singer Danny Keough) tried to talk her out of exactly that for years. “I knew it could go terribly wrong. “My mother kept telling me that no one would take me seriously, I wouldn’t get any jobs and it would be embarrassing if I didn’t give absolutely everything,” she remembers. “You don’t want to be embarrassing celebrity kids! She instilled the phrase deeply into me and my brother.” This is also why Keough decided on a different last name. But she freely admits: “Of course I know that as Elvis' granddaughter, it was easier for me at the beginning of my career to find an agent, meet people and so on... There's a lot of debate about Nepo babies at the moment. I realize what a great privilege that is.” But even though her famous grandfather opened doors, Keough ultimately owes her acting career to her own talent. She shines in exciting indie film roles like “American Honey,” has made blockbusters like “Mad Max: Fury Road” and played the lead role in the TV miniseries “Under the Bridge.” She recently had to sing in front of the camera for the first time for the Amazon miniseries “Daisy Jones & the Six”. Did that intimidate her? Keough laughs. “To be honest, I didn’t know I could even sing. “I thought it was cool that I managed to do that,” she says. “I also have to admit that almost nothing embarrasses me when I’m working. You are constantly evolving. Sometimes you fail and do a bad job. But that doesn’t determine your entire existence.” Sentences like these reflect the maturity of someone who has already had to experience a lot. And knows how the world can suddenly change forever. Keough not only lost her mother far too early, but also her brother. To face grief, she became certified as a death companion. “I wish we could completely redefine our relationship to death. I think the fear of death and that extreme discomfort dictates our lives in ways we don't even realize." Keough has made peace with the fact that everything is constantly changing. “I try to stay open to whatever comes. To let myself drift and not have any fixed expectations. To live my life as best I can. And to feel as much joy as possible.

Even small things can make you very happy!” This letting go “in a family full of addicts” wasn’t always easy. “Unfortunately, you cannot help others beat their addiction. I've spent a lot of my life trying everything. Nothing worked!” she says. But what helps is sharing experiences. Hence the book. “I want this memoir to create something that my mother always wanted: connection and empathy,” says Keough. “What helped me most in difficult times was understanding that suffering is a collective experience on this planet. That so many people have to cope with much more every day than we realize. Recognizing this puts everything much more into perspective.” And so the book is intended to encourage people not to give up despite all the blows of fate. Is there something that gives you a lot of strength? "Hope. “It’s a conscious decision for me and it inspires me,” she says carefully. “There are so many wonderful things in this world. And at the same time an incredible amount of suffering. But that's exactly what it's about. To accept this incredible complexity and fragility of life. And to live in the middle of it!”

Text: Laura Antonia Jordan / Nadine Sieger