There’s More to Charles Melton Than Meets the Eye

There’s more to Charles Melton than meets the eye—although what appears to be at the moment is quite pleasant. It’s a rare cloudy day in Los Angeles, a May December star and former model lounges on a lounger in the lush pool of her elegant Silver Lake home, seemingly oblivious people commotion around him.

The 33-year-old actor rests relentlessly between takes, steals his sister’s leftover French fries, chats with the photographer about Brooklyn neighborhoods (“I love Cobble Hill. If I had a family, I’d want to be there”) and, in a refreshing departure from the usual celebrity shoot requests, had just two requests: “Everything’s in Its Right Place” by Radiohead and “Rich Spirit” by Kendrick Lamar in the background music playlist.

Erik Carter

It’s hard to reconcile this ridiculously handsome, kind guy—or as his ex Riverdale Costar Cole Sprouse joked on Instagram, “an A5 slab of wagyu beef”—with the repressed, prematurely middle-aged character he plays in Todd Haynes’ critically acclaimed Netflix drama.

It’s a stunning performance that won praise almost immediately upon the film’s release last November: Among them, it won awards at Gotham, the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and nominations for the Golden Globes and Independent Spirit Awards. (Though not at the Oscars, which many thought was the biggest un-Barbie-related snub. But we’ll get to that later.)

Loosely based on the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal in the mid-90s, May December it centers on Melton’s Joe, a 36-year-old husband and father of three who got into a relationship with his now-wife Gracie (Julianne Moore) when he was 13 and she was in her 30s. Natalie Portman stars as Elizabeth, an actress who follows the family to research her role in the film adaptation of their story—and prompts a re-examination of the couple’s long-buried past. “Joe has this arrested development, this kind of inner tragedy from his adolescence that has been taken away from him,” Melton says. “[He has] the enormous responsibility of a father, while at the same time experiencing the probing of tabloid culture. He had to survive and create that adaptive adult child to manage his life.”

Erik Carter

A tough call for an actor previously best known for playing Archie’s nemesis Reggie Mantle on the long-running teen soap Riverdale and starring in Ariana Grande’s “Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” video (which may or may not culminate in a triple play in an infinity pool). But he holds his own against his Oscar-winning co-stars — even if he doesn’t want to admit it.

“They just elevate everyone around them. The way they work, their technique, they’re masters of their craft,” he says of Moore and Portman.

Haynes, his director, disagrees: “On top of his sensitivity, intuition and instincts, he’s an incredibly skilled actor from a technical standpoint,” says Haynes, 63. “The physicality that he brings to the role of Joe is really not something a beginner would or just someone who just follows his instincts necessarily knew how to do.”

No stranger to directing award-winning plays, Haynes (A song, Far from paradise) knew he had something special when he received Melton’s audition tape.

“Charles’ instincts and his choices were like no other, because he seemed to show you someone who was not yet fully functioning, [who had] the feeling of someone who is somehow trapped in a long relationship that has given him a very specific role and limited all other aspects of his person,” he says. “Most of the other actors felt accessible. Charles seemed to understand the docile side of Joe around Gracie and her angst and breakdowns, but he made it seem like something very private that really happened behind closed doors. His performance revealed things to me that really penetrated deeply into the story and past of this relationship.”

Portman says Melton’s layering has extended beyond the screen: “He’s a super interesting person — I mean, he’s a college football player, and then he says, ‘I’m reading bell hooks as visions of sexual identity and gender identity,'” recalls the star, 42. “Who are you? I love this! If that’s what the new generation is like, bring it out.”

Moore, 63, added: “He’s so handsome, and he buried that with this performance. You don’t see it at all. You see a completely different person.”

Erik Carter

Born in Juneau, Alaska to Sukyong, a homemaker, and Phil, who served in the military, Melton was a self-proclaimed “military brat” who bounced around Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Korea (where Sukyong was born), Texas, and Germany growing up with his two younger sisters, Tammie and Patricia. But he considers Kansas his home because he attended high school there and later went on to play football for Kansas State University. A few concussions later, he wondered if his future should include more time on the field.

In 2012, after hearing a radio ad for a talent show, he went to an open call where he drew a lot of interest—and promptly dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles.

He made ends meet by walking dogs and delivering Chinese takeout before landing Riverdale in 2017. Roles in The sun is also a star and Bad boys for life followed, and most recently, an unforgettable guest appearance as a scrappy race car driver opposite Natasha Lyonne in An expressionless face. Which, by the way, he was filming when he found out he got the role of Joe May December: (“I was in upstate New York, wearing a race car driver’s suit, and it was like 120 degrees outside. It was very surreal to me.”)

But nothing could prepare him for awards season like a disturbing Netflix drama launched: hanging out with the likes of Bradley Cooper and Robert Downey Jr., making kimchi with his mom and Steven Yeun, and the new professional opportunities he was offered, even if the whirlwind campaign didn’t end in an Oscar nomination.

“The moments I had and the words I shared with people during this journey. . . that is what is important,” he says. “If I’m thinking about this or anything that might come, then I don’t really exist in the moment.”

The ride was not smooth. Vili Fualaau, 40, who was the real-life inspiration for Melton’s character, said he was “insulted” May December without anyone involved in the film reaching it.

When asked how he felt about Fualaau’s criticism, Melton says, “I really used my imagination to discover and explore the roots of our human emotions. Emotions, whether sadness, repression or anger, have many different faces. Exploring those faces with a guide [co-screenwriter] Alone [Burch’s] the script was one of the most exciting things I could have dreamed of.”

Erik Carter

For now, the actor is happy to enjoy a break before preparing for his next project, the lead role in contrast WandaVisionElizabeth Olsen in a dark comedy A child is the result of the love of two adultsdirected Welcome to the Doll’s House Todd Solondz. According to Deadline, the film follows Misty (Olsen), who is stuck in a loveless marriage. When handsome stranger Easy (Melton) shows up, Misty’s 11-year-old son hatches a plan to get rid of his brutal father so his mother can marry Easy instead.

Erik Carter

Melton, who previously dated Camila Mendes and Chloe Bennet, seems to have a much less complicated love life than his on-screen characters.

“I have my dog, Neya. I love her,” he says with a smile when asked about his romantic status. (He also cheekily deflects the question “What do you look for in a partner who isn’t a dog” when talking about his new partnership with a production company.) “I’m just trying to be the best son, the best big brother, the best friend that I can be to the people who love me the most,” he says. This is where I am.”

Fittingly, the actor credits his parents and sisters for keeping him grounded amid the Hollywood rush. “Moments come and go. people the magazine comes and goes,” he says. “What doesn’t come and go is my family, and they are with me at every moment. These are the people who love me, with whom I will be on every part of my life’s journey. They tell me the truth. ”

Especially his mother, whom Melton often takes as a companion to industry events.

“Who wouldn’t want mom to be with him?” he says of a woman whose jars of homemade kimchi were sent to covering reporters May December during awards season. “She’ll always tell me, no matter how old I get, I’ll always be her baby Charles: ‘I don’t care if you have a house, if you pay the bills and if you have kids, you’ll always be my baby.’ ”

Melton enhanced that upbringing with young actors playing his teenage children May December, Gabriel Chung, Piper Curda, and Elizabeth Yu. He took it upon himself to fill in the gaps in their film knowledge – the trio watched Matrix, Gladiator and Fight club for the first time under his tutelage — and let them do laundry at his house in Silver Lake.

Erik Carter

They all also got matching butterfly tattoos based on a drawing of Melton’s hand while filming in Savannah, according to Yu: “I was super nervous, but then I said, ‘I already share my skin with these people, to a certain degree.’ So the tattoo was really special to me in this little fake family that we had.”

But Melton insists the experience wasn’t an attempt at Method acting as a thirtysomething. “These are all things I would naturally do if I wasn’t playing their father,” he says. “I let it be really just informing me about some choices I’ve made. My goal is not to be like, ‘Oh, I’m going to experience this so I can use it.’ Not. It’s: ‘I’m going to live this because that’s who I am, Charles. This is what is in my heart.’ ”

The last two sentences seem to sum up the unique space Melton currently occupies: teenage heartthrob turned high-profile player. A father figure who isn’t above playing video games all day to cheer himself up when his favorite football team (the Philadelphia Eagles, in case you’re wondering) loses. A rising star who did not yet have his heart media trained from his answers.

Says Haynes: “His lack of narcissism is really amazing for the way he looks. There’s an innocence to it, to the whole thing where he still seems kind of amazed that people are checking him out.” He pauses. “And maybe that’s just another part of his really good acting.”

Merits

Photographer: Erik Carter

Cinematographer: Eric Longden

Groomer: Candice Birns

Stylist: Samantha McMillen

DRESSING ROOM

Light blue pajamas: Prada, slippers: BODE, earrings: Starling

Brown sweater: King & Tuckfield, Pants: AMIRI, Earrings: Starling

Cream suit: Todd Snyder, sandals: Loro Piana, earrings: Starling

Jacket Look Jacket, pants, shoes: BODE, sunglasses: Oliver Peoples, earrings: Starling

Blue look coat, shirt, tie, shorts, loafers: Valentino, earrings: Starling

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education