Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are speaking out after Vili Fualaau slammed their new movie May December.
Vili, 40, recently called the new Todd Haynes-directed movie a “ripoff” of his real-life relationship with the late Mary Kay Letourneau.
In May December, Charles Melton‘s character Joe was 13 when he was seduced by Julianne‘s 36-year-old character. Vili was 12 when 34-year-old Mary Kay first victimized him in 1996. She later pleaded guilty to two counts of child rape.
Vili said that he was “offended” by the movie and slammed everyone involved for not reaching out to him for feedback.
Now, Natalie and Julianne are addressing Vili‘s criticism.
“I’m so sorry to here that. It’s not based on them,” Natalie told Entertainment Tonight at the 2024 Golden Globes. “Obviously, their story influenced the culture that we all grew up in and influenced the idea. But it’s fictional characters that are really brought to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so beautifully. It’s its own story, it’s not meant to be a biopic.”
Julianne then insisted that Todd “was always very clear when we were working on this movie that this was an original story, this was a story about these characters.”
“This was our document,” Julianne continued. “We created these characters from the page and together.”
In another recent interview, Charles opened up about preparing for the role.
May December is available for streaming on Netflix now.
