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Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are going toe to toe in the ripped-from-the-headlines drama “May December.” They dished with “Extra’s” Melvin Robert about the film, which is inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau case, and react to Oscar buzz.
Moore plays Gracie, a woman at the center of a scandalous romance, while Portman is Elizabeth, an actress who’s studying Gracie’s family before bringing the tabloid-ready story to the big screen.
The story was inspired by the media frenzy created by the famous ‘90s case surrounding elementary school teacher Letourneau, who died in 2020, and her relationship with Vili Fualaau, a sixth-grade student she eventually married.
The movie is already getting Oscar buzz! Julianne said, “It’s hard to not pay attention to it,” adding with a laugh, “It’s like, listen… everybody loves praise, attention… but I think the most important thing is to enjoy your work… and look at it all as a celebration of what wonderful work there is in a given year.”
The events in “May December” take place two decades after the scandal exploded.
Portman explained the movie’s focus — it takes place 20 years after Gracie’s relationship with Joe (Charles Melton) was exposed — saying, “Okay, what happens to these humans after all the noise has died down?”
She went on, “And then seeing then this kind of reignition of it, with this actress coming in to interfere with their lives while trying to represent their lives… I think it just makes for an amazing conflict.”
Mel asked about the emotionally confrontational scenes, and Julianne shared, “It was great. I love Natalie, and I found it incredibly easy to be with her and work with her, and it was a very strong partnership, I feel like, right from the beginning. So, I think we both went into it having a corridor of play and communication, and so it was very easy to lean into these things that were dark and difficult and weird.”
Natalie added, “I love Julie so much and it was so easy and so fun to just spend time and work together. And it’s so fun when you’re working with someone as incredible as Julie, that you can see the minor variations like, when you do something there’s a shift, you know? You can push each other… you can play within a scene.”
Moore shared, “I remember when we were doing the cooking scene because it’s like there’s a line about, ‘Be careful, because if you keep it on too long, you could ruin it.’ And I didn’t want to hit it too hard, but I just felt like I could hit it a little harder, because it was Nat… and it was just fun, really fun to do.”
Robert asked what the vibe was like in-between takes, and Julianne said, “Easy. Talked about our kids, talked about dinner, lunch. Lot of food. Stuff like New York. Just talked about, just, life stuff, really.”
Charles Melton, who just won a Gotham Award for his performance, plays Julianne’s character’s husband.
He said of working with Moore and Portman, “Think of the greatest sports athlete in the world, times that by two. Have them come to set. They just elevated everything around them. They elevated me.”
He went on, “I was so nervous, so nervous,” adding he was also “excited and kind of focused on the story that I had to tell, the character Joe and who this man was.”
The “Riverdale” alum continued, “When I came to work, it was, ‘Focus on Joe,’ and then after I finished filming those 23 days, I was like, ‘What? Did this just happen?’ You know, it’s still very surreal for me.”
When Melvin asked Julianne and Natalie who they would love to work with in the future, Julianne answered, “That is a good question. [Martin] Scorsese,” adding, “Let’s get in one of his movies… you and me.”
Natalie agreed, “Yeah, let’s do it! Deal.”
Portman even had a message for the Oscar-winning director: “You hear that Marty?”
“May December” is available in select theaters and premieres on Netflix December 1.