Charles Melton Explains Why He Gained 40 Pounds for 'May December' Role Opposite Julianne Moore & Natalie Portman

The cast of May December is hard at work promoting the new Netflix movie now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is over!

Natalie Portman, Charles Melton, and Julianne Moore attended a photo call for the film on Friday afternoon (November 17) at the Four Seasons Hotel at Beverly Hills in Los Angeles.

The three actors were joined by director Todd Haynes.

Here’s the synopsis: “Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple (Moore, Melton) buckles under the pressure when an actress (Portman) arrives to do research for a film about their past.”

In a new interview, Charles explained why he gained 40 pounds for the role.

Keep reading to find out more…

“It was more of a collective discussion with Todd and I. We talked about what [my character] Joe would feel like, not so much as look like,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “Looking at the facts of him being this suburban father with three kids and being a loving husband. He doesn’t really have too much time to spend on himself.”

On how he gained the weight, Charles said, “I just ate a bunch of Five Guys and pizza and ice cream and Capri Suns and Gushers. I can keep on going. And I really enjoyed myself.”

Todd spoke to Vulture about the weight gain, saying that he “felt that Joe would be a good-looking man, but Charles has that sort of hunkiness and pin-up quality that wasn’t necessarily how I pictured him.”

He added that Charles “gained 35, 40 pounds for the role to change his chiseled self into something more familiar: a suburban man in this place. There’s such remarkable physicality in the choices he made as an actor. A friend of mine saw a cut of it, and he said, ‘Charles moves like a child and an old man, a combination of the two’ — which makes so much sense given his predicament.”

Watch the trailer for the movie, which is now in limited theaters and heading to Netflix on December 1.