Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman co-star in May December, the highly anticipated drama from Todd Haynes that couldn’t be more current. The movie is sure to get everyone talking, as it taps into age gap discourse and the politics of immoral characters. (The term “May-December” is often used to describe relationships where one person is much older than the other, though not necessarily in a “problematic, underage” way.)
Here’s everything we know about the juicy new movie everyone will be talking about.
What is May December about?
Actor Elizabeth Barry (Natalie Portman) moves in with Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) who is raising a family with her husband Joe (Charles Melton) after meeting him and starting their relationship…when he was a pre-teen. Barry is set to play Atherton-Yoo in an upcoming movie about her life and the tabloid scandal that resulted from her and Joe’s relationship, which Joe insists was consensual.
May December. (L to R) Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry and Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo in May December. Cr. Francois Duhamel / courtesy of NetflixFrancois Duhamel / courtesy of Netflix
Is May December based on a true story?
The main characters are all fictitious, but the backstory appears to be inspired by the controversial relationship between Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, who dominated headlines in the late ’90s. Letourneau had been Fualaau’s sixth grade teacher (in the trailer for May December, it seems like Gracie might not have been a teacher, but it’s unclear), and later gave birth to two children while in jail. She and Fulaau were married for fourteen years and separated in 2019; Letourneau passed away in 2020.
Watch the first trailer, here:
Who is in the cast?
In addition to Portman, Moore, and Melton, the cast includes Piper Curda, Cory Michael Smith, D. W. Moffett, Drew Scheid, Elizabeth Yu, Andrea Falks, Jocelyn Shelfo, Kelvin Han Yee, Lawrence Arancio, and Hailey Wist.