Barbara Eden Says Hollywood Executives Just Wanted to Cash in on Elvis Presley

NEED TO KNOW

• Barbra Eden reflected on making 1960’s Flaming Star with Elvis Presley

• The movie was a rare chance for Presley to leave the musical comedy genre and flex his dramatic chops

• Eden said that once the movie was not a success, Hollywood executives were more focused on putting Presley in more musicals to keep making money, instead of nurturing his dramatic talents

Barbara Eden thinks Elvis Presley had a lot more to offer than Hollywood executives let him show.

Eden, who’s best known for her role in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, opened up to Entertainment Weekly in an interview published on Friday, July 3 about starring with Presley in one of his films, 1960’s Flaming Star. Until then, Presley had mostly starred in movie musicals, including 1956’s Love Me Tender, 1957’s Jailhouse Rock and 1960’s G.I. Blues (his first film completed after he was discharged from the U.S. Army).

Flaming Star, however, was a genuine dramatic film, and saw Presley, who died in 1977 at 42, play Pacer Burton, the son of a Kiowa mother and a Texan father who’s torn between the two cultures. Eden played Roslyn Pierce, his love interest. When the movie was finally released, Presley only sang in it twice — during the title song and during a short birthday party scene.

“He was good. He was good in that movie,” Eden, 94, told EW. “I think all they did was use him to get the money. They didn’t think about his career or how talented [he was] — my God. He was wonderful, and he was wonderful singing.”

But after Flaming Star did not perform well at the box office, Presley went back to music-heavy films, including 1961’s Blue Hawaii, 1962’s Girls! Girls! Girls!, 1963’s It Happened at the World’s Fair, 1964’s Viva Las Vegas and 1966’s Paradise, Hawaiian Style.

It took until 1969’s Charro! for Presley to appear in another movie that had minimal music.

Eden remembered that while she was making I Dream of Jeannie, she was also performing on the Las Vegas Strip. “I’d go up to Vegas and headline, and one of the times [Presley] was down the street,” she said. Her husband at the time, Michael Ansara, encouraged her to go see him.

She ultimately listened. “I went to the hotel in between my shows. Oh my God… you walked in, and there was the thrumming of those guitars, and it was just — gives me goosebumps, even now, to talk about it,” she said.

Eden also opened up about working with Presley in a 2025 interview with PEOPLE. “He was a fine actor,” she said. “This was a part that required good acting, and he did it, boy.” She called the movie itself “a beautiful piece.”

Eden added that she “loved” working with Presley, who invited his father and another friend to set. “And they would play their guitars and sing in between shots,” she said.

Eden’s time on I Dream of Jeannie ended in 1970. Later roles included 1978’s Harper Valley PTA (and its spinoff TV series) and a guest spot on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She also appeared widely in TV movies and reunited with her Jeannie co-star, Larry Hagman, on Dallas.

In the decades since it was released, Flaming Star has only grown in the esteem of many critics. EW wrote in 1990 that Presley “gives a thoroughly convincing nonmusical performance” and “might have given Steve McQueen or Clint Eastwood a run for their money.” They added that it was “unlike anything else in the Presley canon.”

Flaming Star is also remembered because of Andy Warhol, who used a publicity still from the movie to create his 1963 artwork, Triple Elvis, considered one of his greatest works.

Read the original article on People