Is ‘May December’ Based On A True Story?
In May December, the new Netflix movie from director Todd Haynes, actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) goes deep into her next role by obsessively digging into the life of Gracie Atherton (Julianne Moore) and her husband Joe Yoo (Charles Melton). The couple notoriously made headlines thanks to Gracie being charged and arrested after being caught having underage sex with Joe. Despite the scandal, the two remained together over the years and even started a family.
If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because May December very closely mirrors the infamous real-life story of school teacher Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau.
In the film, Joe is 13 when he is first seduced by Julianne Moore’s 36-year-old character. Fualaau was just 12 when a 34-year-old Letourneau first victimized him in 1996. Letourneau later pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape.
There are many other similarities. Both men are Asian/Pacific Islander — Joe is half-Korean, Fualaau is Samoan. Both father children born in prison. Both marry their female abusers after the women have served jail time for their crimes. And a key May December scene features dialogue (“Who was the boss?”) lifted directly from a televised interview with Letourneau and Fualaau.
Those similarities were not lost on Fualaau, who did not hold back his thoughts when asked to comment on May December pulling heavily from his real-life relationship with the late Letourneau, who died from cancer in 2020. According to Fualaau, the production didn’t even have the courtesy to consult him.
“If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story,” Fualaau told THR. “I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me — who lived through a real story and is still living it.”
May December is available for streaming on Netflix
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)