Here’s what to learn about May December, the thriller movie starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore that is loosely based mostly on a infamous true-crime story
Courtesy of Netflix
Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo with Charles Melton as Joe in May December
May December explores an intriguingly darkish dynamic between two girls.
The drama stars Natalie Portman as an actress named Elizabeth who’s getting ready to play a task based mostly on the lifetime of Gracie, performed by Julianne Moore, who made headlines 20 years in the past for getting into right into a relationship with an adolescent.
The love affair between Gracie and Joe, performed by Charles Melton, is the controversy on the movie’s core, which started when she was 36 and he was 13. It ultimately landed her in jail on account of their age distinction — although after her launch, the 2 married and had a household collectively.
Director Todd Haynes, who started engaged on the script in 2019, opened up concerning the affect the real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau had on May December, along with “tabloid culture of the ’90s” as a complete. “That was the true leaping off level for me,” he stated.
The fictionalized character Haynes created “just isn’t a pedophile,” he stated of Gracie. “She would not have a historical past of going after each little teenage boy. There’s one thing very particular that occurred to those two individuals.”
May December has obtained vital acclaim since its launch. Melton, former star of The CW’s Riverdale, obtained a 2023 Gotham Award for his supporting efficiency within the movie. His costar Moore celebrated his honor on Instagram throughout the ceremony in November 2023.
Read on for the whole lot to learn about May December.
Related: How Mary Kay Letourneau Inspired Julianne Moore’s May December
What is May December about?
Francois Duhamel /Netflix
Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry and Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo in May December.
May December explores the more and more fraught dynamic between two girls, Portman’s Elizabeth Berry and Moore’s Gracie Atherton-Yoo. It additionally follows Melton’s Joe Yoo as he navigates marriage and rising strife along with his spouse, who seduced him as an adolescent.
The movie’s official logline reads, “as Elizabeth attempts to get closer to the family, the uncomfortable facts of their scandal unfurl, causing difficult, long-dormant emotions to resurface.”
May December follows Elizabeth, a TV actress who’s forged in a brand new status film based mostly on a scandalous tabloid romance, 20 years after it made headlines. The tabloid obsession facilities round Gracie, who at 36 started an affair with a then 13-year-old Joe at a pet store the place they labored, which resulted in her being despatched to jail.
After her launch, Gracie married Joe, who’s now 36 and getting ready to be an empty nester as they ship their younger children to varsity. He maintains that the connection was all the time consensual.
Elizabeth travels to Savannah, Georgia — the place the movie is ready — to analysis the pair’s real-life relationship as she prepares to painting Gracie within the upcoming movie concerning the scandal. However, her digging into their lives begins to trigger fissures because it forces Joe to rethink his dynamic with Gracie.
“Both girls are circling one another and making an attempt to get a deal with on one another,” director Haynes stated throughout a press convention on the New York Film Festival in September 2023. “I believe plenty of it’s a few technique of belief, which is Natalie’s character Elizabeth’s objective to make Gracie really feel towards her.”
He added, “It’s Elizabeth’s venture to attempt to navigate round these resistances piece by piece.”
Who’s within the forged of May December?
Natasha Campos/Getty
Charles Melton, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman attend Netflix’s May December Los Angeles premiere at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on November 16, 2023
May December stars Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo, Portman as Elizabeth Berry and Melton as Joe Yoo.
Moore has beforehand spoken about how tough this function has been for her to tackle. “I called up Todd [Haynes] and said, ‘I can’t do this. This is too hard!’” the actress admitted at Deadline’s Contenders Film L.A. in November 2023. “I was really struggling. I’m like, ‘Who is this woman?’”
Haynes, in the meantime, has praised the actress for her dedication to the half as a way to “get to the core of what may make this sort of relationship happen,” he beforehand stated at a press convention.
“The complexity of the character of Gracie as written… represents a myriad of contradictions and interesting components of willfulness, after which a resolute, almost cussed lack of self-reflection, a dedication to stay to the alternatives that she’s made,” Haynes stated.
Melton additionally took preparation for the function significantly, gaining 40 lbs. to remodel into Joe, which he informed Entertainment Tonight was a part of moving into the character’s head.
“It was extra of a collective dialogue with Todd and I. We talked about what Joe would really feel like, not a lot as seem like,” he defined. “Looking at the facts of him being this suburban father with three kids and being a loving husband. He doesn’t really have too much time to spend on himself.”
He quipped of the weight gain, “I just ate a bunch of Five Guys and pizza and ice cream and Capri Suns and Gushers … I can keep on going. And I really enjoyed myself!”
As for Portman, the Black Swan star was thrilled to work alongside Moore, describing the collaborative experience to Netflix Queue as an “absolutely a highlight of my life.” She explained, “I’ve admired Julie for so long, and particularly her work with [director] Todd [Haynes].”
“Their collaborations have stayed in my mind as some of the highlights of films that I love,” Portman continued. “So to get to be working with them together is absolutely a highlight of my life.”
Is there a May December trailer?
The first official trailer for May December was launched in September 2023, giving viewers a glimpse on the unsettling dynamic between Portman and Moore’s characters forward of the movie’s open on the New York Film Festival in May 2023.
Related: Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore Explore a Shocking Tabloid Romance in May December Trailer
Is May December based mostly on a real story?
ALAN BERNER/AP/Shutterstock, FRANCOIS DUHAMEL / COURTESY OF NETFLIX
Mary Kay LeTourneau; Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo in May December
May December is a fictionalized have a look at the real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau, a Seattle college trainer sentenced to greater than seven years in jail for youngster rape after she started sexually abusing her sixth-grade pupil Vili Fualaau in 1996.
During a press convention after a screening of the movie on the New York Film Festival in September 2023, screenwriter Samy Burch defined how a lot of the story was impressed by the lifetime of Letourneau, who died of cancer at 58 in 2020.
“I actually needed a fictional story that handled this tabloid tradition of the ’90s that has sort of seemingly led into this true-crime biopic world we’re in now, and sort of query that transition and why we wish to preserve recreating these tales,” stated Burch, who started engaged on the script in 2019. “That was the true leaping off level for me.”
“All of those tales like this which might be within the ether are simply fully embedded in everybody’s cultural historical past,” she added. While May December is loosely based mostly on real-life happenings, Haynes revealed on the press convention that Moore took some inspiration from Letourneau when building the character, notably in creating Gracie’s talking voice.
“To be trustworthy, there have been issues in sort of a unfastened higher palate that we did discover attention-grabbing in Mary Kay Letourneau’s speech that was a kick-off for her. And she took it additional,” he stated.
Related: Mary Kay Letourneau and Her Student: Inside the Relationship That Shocked a Nation
When did May December premiere?
Francois Duhamel/Courtesy of Netflix
Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo with Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry in May December
May December premiered on the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023. It later hit choose theaters on Nov. 17 forward of its launch on streamers.
Related: Natalie Portman Says Women Are ‘Expected to Behave’ Differently Than Men at Cannes
Where to stream May December?
Courtesy of Netflix
Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo with Charles Melton as Joe in May December.
May December is available to stream on Netflix on Dec. 1, 2023.
For extra People information, make sure that to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the unique article on People.
