Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman gush over what it was like to finally work together.
By now, you’ve probably heard about (or watched) the new film May December. This star-studded drama — which is loosely inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau‘s tabloid scandal — features Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and Charles Melton as a trio of odd characters reflecting on the controversial beginnings of a strange marriage.
In 1992, Moore’s Gracie started a sexual relationship with a young teen named Joe (Melton) and paid the price with a prison sentence. Despite the stigma, Joe and Gracie eventually married and settled into a tranquil, if unusual, family life. Elizabeth, played by Portman, is an actress who arrives at their home to do research for her role portraying Gracie in an upcoming biopic. Elizabeth is hellbent on trying to understand what happened all those years ago, but the more she studies the family, the further she gets from the truth.
Recently, Katie caught up with Moore, Portman, and Melton to talk about the process of making the film. They were joined by director Todd Haynes and screenwriter Samy Burch (May December was her first feature screenplay, by the way). Together, the cast and crew discussed the challenges of portraying such flawed, nuanced characters.
Check out our favorite moments from the podcast here and listen to the full episode to get more scoop.
Katie Couric: I have to ask you, Julianne, about Gracie. Because she’s such an enigma. All of these characters are so damn weird to me. But tell me, how would you describe Gracie?
Julianne Moore: It’s funny you said that because Samy’s script was deceptively simple. It was really, really clean. I read it and was like, “I got this. No problem.” And then I started working on it and I called Todd and I said, “I don’t think I can do this. This is really hard. She’s really complicated.”
Everyone is so desperate to express their narrative, to tell their story — no one more so than Gracie. And Gracie’s narrative is so complicated. There was something in the script that I kept stumbling over as I was working on it: Gracie was kind of commanding in her house but I thought, I don’t get it. She doesn’t seem like a mother to me. She doesn’t seem like she’s in control. And then I started thinking, Oh, she’s not the mom. She’s a princess. She’s a princess who was rescued by her prince. And her prince was 13 years old. To make that work, she has to elevate him to being an adult while she remains a child. She’s forever that princess. So she’s not the mom; she’s a little girl. That’s her story and she’s sticking to it. The distance between that narrative and the huge transgression that’s occurred is vast. And there’s so much tension in between. That’s where all that emotional volatility happens, so that when she’s alone, she just falls apart.
It’s as if they’re all trying to convince themselves that they’re happy. Natalie, you described Elizabeth as “slippery.” What do you mean by that, exactly, and how would you describe her? Because she’s so complicated, too.
Natalie Portman: Well, I think she’s as slippery as Gracie is. That’s part of the brilliance of Samy’s script. There are different points where you’re with each of them and then they lose you. You’re with them and you kind of believe their version of the truth, and then you realize they’ve been manipulating you. I was so struck by the levels of artifice and performance and the embrace of that. And Todd’s brilliance in using all of these mirror scenes and using the camera as the mirror so that even when they’re looking at themselves, it’s performance. It’s always performance. You’re just trying to unravel and find someone to tell the truth. And of course, Charles is true and honest, and you’re so relieved because no one else is telling you anything real. And so it’s just a beautiful construction that Samy made for us.
I have to ask you and Julianne about the nature of your relationship during that makeup scene. Speaking of mirrors, I expected you to start making out for some reason. I kind of wanted sexual tension. How would you describe the dynamic between these two women? It’s such an interesting dance, isn’t it?
Moore: I think they’re in a struggle for dominance. Who’s going to tell the story? And I think the interesting thing for me, as Grace, is that her desperation to tell that story and to have Elizabeth believe it is so strong that she’s going to do absolutely everything she can to make Elizabeth believe. And that includes seducing her, in a way. You know, seduction is another form of power. But what Natalie did so brilliantly as an actor, a character, and a colleague is that Gracie can experience Elizabeth mimicking her. She sees her copy her gestures, movement, and dress and she approves of it. It feels good because Grace is like, She’s seeing me like I want to be seen. Right? But then when I watch the movie and I see Natalie really managing to imitate me and then comment on it when Gracie doesn’t see, it kills me. It’s so good. It’s absolutely beautiful. So anyway, she was a tremendous partner and a great colleague, and we had the best time together.
It was so fun to watch you two at work and just get lost in the roles, but also at the same time admire your incredible artistry in portraying these crazy ass women.
Portman: I think that Julianne’s my all-time favorite actress and I just was dying to work with her and do this together. I realized how kind she was, how generous and fun. It made it so possible to do all this nasty stuff to each other because it was so safe when we were off-camera.
Charles, Joe is a fascinating, complicated character. He’s more honest, perhaps, but he’s still sort of simmering. And you can’t quite read what he’s thinking, although, toward the end, I think he’s like, Holy shit, what have I got myself into? But tell us a little bit about how you approached this role. Did you read about Mary Kay Letourneau?
Charles Melton: There’s so much source material to look at, but it just started with Samy’s script. There was just so much in between the text. I also looked at certain things in my life personally that I could apply or find a parallel to that wasn’t so much that same experience, but the feeling was similar. My dad was in the Army, I was an Army brat, and when I was 11 years old, he sat me down the night before he left to go to Desert Storm and told me to step up and take care of my two younger sisters. And as a kid, you want to step up to the plate. When your hero’s telling you this, you want to do whatever you can. And in a way, I could draw that parallel with Joe for his kids and stepping up to the plate for Gracie, too. So that was a little bit of what I looked at.
