Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore drawn to ‘intimacy’ of their on-screen relationship in May December

LOS ANGELES – Starring Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, the film May December is inspired by the real-life scandal involving American schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau, who was 34 when she initiated a sexual relationship with her 12-year-old student.

Letourneau was arrested on child-rape charges in 1997 and spent almost eight years behind bars, but she also went on to marry and have two children with the boy, Vili Fualaau.

And the couple continued to publicly defend their relationship till they were separated in 2019 and Letourneau died of cancer the following year.

Now showing in Singapore cinemas,

May December casts Moore as a woman named Gracie, who was 36 when she began an affair with her son’s 13-year-old schoolmate Joe (Charles Melton).

But the two have now been married for 20 years, and when Hollywood actress Elizabeth (Portman) spends time with them before playing Gracie in a movie, she finds a couple still blissfully in love – or so it initially seems.

Directed by American film-maker Todd Haynes, the drama is in the running for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars in March.

At a screening in Los Angeles in late 2023, Portman – who was also the lead producer – recalls being captivated by the script when she first read it.

“It was immediately clear how rich these characters were, and how rare it was to find something so specific, detailed and complicated where you never really know how you feel about any of the characters,” says the 42-year-old American star, who won a Best Actress Oscar for playing a ballerina in the psychological thriller Black Swan (2010).

The viewer’s assessment of each character may shift throughout the film, but Portman tries to withhold judgment of the characters she plays – in this case, an ambitious and manipulative young woman.

“I feel like you can’t really judge a character when you play it – you just have to understand what they’re doing at the time they’re doing it.

“I don’t know my own motivation in life. I feel like most humans don’t. And I think most of these characters are operating kind of unconsciously.”

Moore thinks the relationship between Gracie and Elizabeth – a controversial woman and the performer trying to understand her – is just as crucial as the May-December coupling at the core of the story.

“Here’s a relationship that’s so intimate, so challenging and so unusual,” says the 63-year-old American star, who won a Best Actress Oscar portraying a woman with Alzheimer’s in the drama Still Alice (2014).

“And they’re not related to one another; it’s not a love story. It’s simply two independent women, and their interaction with each other is combative, complicated and admiring.”

Moore’s character Gracie is ultimately desperate for Elizabeth’s understanding and approval.

“She’s saying: ‘This is who I am, I want you to see me – but see me how I see myself.’

“So, she keeps dropping all these crumbs about how she wants to be seen, and gradually starts to crack under the pressure of actually being seen,” says Moore.

The challenge was to capture this dance between the two women, including in a strangely intimate scene where Gracie shows Elizabeth how she likes to put on her make-up.

“To be able to play that with someone – like in the make-up scene – and to have that kind of intimacy with another actress is very unusual,” Moore says.

The other key player is Gracie’s much younger husband, Joe.

The role is the most high-profile so far for 33-year-old American actor Melton, who appeared in the teenage mystery drama Riverdale (2017 to 2023) as Reggie Mantle.

He says it was a dream to work with Moore and Portman along with the film’s acclaimed director Haynes, best known for romance dramas Far From Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015).

“I was honestly every day pinching myself on set working with these two masters of their craft, and with Todd leading the way.”