How Mary Kay Letourneau Inspired Julianne Moore’s May December

May December is a fictionalized take on the much talked about shocking true story.

During a press conference following the film’s screening at the New York Film Festival on Friday, screenwriter Samy Burch explained how much the story was inspired by the real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau.

“I really wanted a fictional story that dealt with this ’90s tabloid culture that kind of led to the world of true crime biopics that we’re in now, and kind of questions that transition and why we want to keep recreating these stories,” said Burch, who began work on the script in 2019. “That was a real starting point for me.”

“All these stories like this that are on the air are just completely embedded in everybody’s cultural history,” she added.

Letourneau, who died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 58, was a Seattle teacher sentenced to more than seven years in prison for child rape after she began sexually abusing her sixth-grade student, Vili Fualaau, in 1996.

She became pregnant twice with Fualaau’s children before he turned 15, despite court orders to keep them apart.

Natalie Portman says she’s working with Julianne Moore May December It was “Absolutely the highlight of my life”

From left: NYFF’s Rachel Rosen, director Todd Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch during a press conference for “May December” on September 29, 2023.

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for FLC

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Fualaau was of age when she was released from prison and petitioned the court to allow them to see each other. Letourneau’s restraining order was lifted, but she remained a registered sex offender in Washington state until her death.

Despite the criminal history of their relationship, the couple married in 2005. They broke up in 2017 after Fualaau filed for divorce. However, as the separation progressed, they continued to live together. Fualaau was by Letourneau’s side when she died, and she left him a large part of her property in her will.

Set in Savannah, Georgia, May December stars Julianne Moore as a woman named Gracie Atherton-Yoo, who, when she was 36, began an affair with a 13-year-old boy at the pet store where they worked, sparking a tabloid obsession.

The two married after her release from prison, and Joe Yoo (Charles Melton), now 36 and about to be an empty nester while sending his younger children off to college, claims the relationship was always consensual.

May December The director says that Charles Melton gained 40 pounds. for the film because his “malignancy” didn’t fit the role

Julianne Moore and Charles Melton in “May December”.

Courtesy of Netflix

Until famous actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) comes to town to investigate their relationship as she prepares to play Gracie in a new movie about the scandal. Elizabeth’s interference in their lives causes Joe to reevaluate his dynamic with Gracie.

Director Todd Haynes said during a press conference that Moore, 62, took inspiration from Letourneau when building the character, including giving Gracie a noticeable swagger.

“Honestly, there were things like the saggy upper palate that we found interesting in Mary Kay Letourneau’s speech that was the beginning for her. And she took it further,” Haynes, 62, said of frequent collaborator Moore. coming with Gracie’s voice speaking.

Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in “May December”.

Francois Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

“Also this idea of ​​how this kind of original relationship comes about? What myth are these two people telling each other about the roles they’re playing?” he continued about the character.

“She’s not a pedophile, this woman; she doesn’t have a history of attacking every little teenager. There’s something very specific that happened to these two people.”

“But it’s shrouded in fantasy,” Haynes said, “which is that she’s a princess who needs to be rescued from a house tower, and he’s a young, virile knight, almost like a Greco-Roman young knight, who’s going to come with all this sexual with masculinity, strength and beauty and save her. And so she plays the little girl.”

The director explained that Moore’s costumes, speech, color palette and more creative decisions “helped us kind of understand how that happened or the delusions that helped the production.”

Although Moore was unable to attend the festival’s press conference due to the current actors’ strike, she previously told Netflix’s Queue what drew her to the role.

“For Gracie, there’s a tremendous amount of judgment about her. She wants to say, ‘See me. Know who I am. Know why I made these decisions.’ She wants to be famous,” says Moore. “I think there’s something really interesting about that, about letting someone into your very, very private life to explore, to see who you are.”

She adds, “But, of course, Gracie also represents the version of herself that she wants to be known as. I think Elizabeth becomes more dangerous because Gracie realizes that she can’t control her own story.”May December is in select theaters from November 17th, then on Netflix from December 1st.

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Source: HIS Education