Todd Haynes reveals the shocking true story that inspired his new film starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.
Presented at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. May December – a new film by American director Todd Haynes (Carol, Room of Wonders, Bad water) and starring Oscar-winning actresses Julianne Moore AND Natalie Portman, as well as young actor Charles Melton. The film will debut on the platform next December 1.
On the occasion of its premiere at the New York Film Festival, the director had the opportunity to explain the origins and inspiration of not only Julianne Moore’s character, but also the entire film, that is, the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, taken from a pulp chronicle of the 90s.
May December: Julianne Moore’s role is inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who caused scandal in the 90s
May December tells the story of Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), the actress who will play the on-screen role of Gracie Atherton-Yu (Julianne Moore), who became known to the public because a few years earlier she married Joe (Charles Melton), 23 years older and younger than her. Their love story caused a scandal at one time, which hit all the tabloids due to the obvious age difference. To prepare for the role, Elizabeth decides to spend some time as a guest with Gracie and Joe on the Maine coast. The couple has twins who are graduating from high school at the time. The actress will live her daily life, carefully studying and studying the relationship dynamics between the various family members, who will inevitably feel the pressure, with an outside perspective.
It was on the occasion of the New York Film Festival premiere that Todd Haynes explained that Moore’s character’s slight stutter was inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau. A woman who worked as a teacher inin the 90s it made the news and became the center of a scandaland even a court case for having “relationship” with one of your students named Vili Fualaau, who was alone at the time of the events 12 years, and with whom during the “relationship” he also had two daughters. They then got married after the woman was released from prison.
Haynes also reported that there are many refer to the Letourneau case during the movie. References range from the character of Moore, often wearing makeup, hair and clothing similar to Letourneau’s, to the inclusion of newspapers and magazines covering the teacher’s case at the time. In the movie, we see Natalie Portman’s character reading some old newspapers that tell the story of the movie, but they are the same newspapers that told the real-life case at the time.
May December Also starring: Corey Michael Smith, Charles Melton, Piper Curda, D.W. Moffett, Drew Shade, Hans Obma, Elizabeth Yu, Kelvin Han Yi, Jocelyn Scelfo, Ellie McCulloch, Andrea Frankl, Charles Green, Haley Wiest, Lawrence Arancio, Zachary Branch, Gabrielle Chang, Mike Lopez, Mikenzie Taylor, Joan Reilly, Chris Tenzis and Christopher Nguyen.
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