May December Director Says Charles Melton Gained 40 Lbs. for Movie Because His ‘Hunkiness’ Didn’t Fit Role

Charles Melton transformed for his complex new role in May December.

The Riverdale The alum, 32, stars alongside Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in the new drama directed by Todd Haynes (A song). In the film, Melton plays Joe Yoo, a 36-year-old man who began an affair with an older woman, Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), when he was 13 years old. They are now married and share three children.

In an interview with SupHaynes revealed that he was initially concerned that Melton was not right for the role.

“I’m so grateful that Charles Melton came to our attention. I haven’t known him in a while Riverdale. His appearance was almost off-putting,” Haynes, 62, said.

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Natalie Portman and Charles Melton in “May December”.

Francois Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

“I felt that Joe would be a good-looking man, but Charles has a kind of ruggedness and a pin-up quality that wasn’t necessarily what I imagined him to be,” the director continued.

Haynes said Melton “gained 35, 40 pounds for the role to change his chiseled self into something more familiar: a suburban man in this place.”

Charlize Theron will not gain weight for roles: ‘I will never do it again’

Charles Melton. Jon Kopaloff/Getty

“There’s such an incredible physicality to the choices he’s made as an actor,” he said. “A friend of mine saw part of it and said, ‘Charles moves like a child and an old man, a combination of the two’ — which makes so much sense given his predicament.”

Speaking to Netflix’s Tudum, Haynes said that Melton ultimately “stunned” him with his “understatement and sense of understanding” in the role.

Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and director Todd Haynes behind the scenes of “May December”.

Francois Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

“The way he portrayed someone who was so stuck, so closed, so tied up in this marriage, and who really hadn’t learned how to take steps to their advantage yet,” the director said of the performance.

Melton said Diversity May about his preparation for May Decemberwhich he described as “a complex, complex, voyeuristic experience of the human condition”.

On preparing to play an empty-nest father of three, Melton said, “I asked my parents how it was when I left home, what conversations they had in their relationship. They said they were very sad.”

“My mother is Korean, and I am first generation on my mother’s side,” he added. “She cooked every meal for me when I was growing up. My dad was very good at letting go – at believing that this new chapter would be the best.”

May December opens the New York Film Festival on Friday. It’s in select theaters on November 17th, then on Netflix on December 1st.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education