Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore React To Vili Fualaau’s ‘May December’ Criticism

Actors Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore are speaking out in defense of “May December” after the film was criticized by Vili Fualaau, the loose inspiration for one of its characters.

On the red carpet at Sunday’s Golden Globes, Portman told Entertainment Tonight that, despite Fualaau and ex-wife Mary Kay Letourneau’s contentious relationship influencing “May December,” the film is “its own story.”

“It’s not based on them, it’s, you know, obviously their story influenced the culture that we all grew up in and influenced the idea,” Portman said. “But it’s fictional characters that are really brought to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so beautifully, and yeah, it’s its own story, it’s not meant to be a biopic.”

Moore, who also spoke with ET, offered a similar response.

“[Director Todd Haynes] was always very clear when we were working on this movie that this was an original story, this was a story about these characters,” she said. “So that’s how we looked at it, too. This was our document, we created these characters from the page and together.”

Moore, Portman and Charles Melton — whose character is loosely based on Fualaau — received Golden Globe nominations for their performances in “May December.” The film hit Netflix last month after a theatrical release in November.

“May December” is a heavily fictionalized take on the controversy surrounding Fualaau’s marriage to Letourneau, his former sixth grade teacher and a convicted sex offender. He was 12 when she began a sexual relationship with him. In 1997, Letourneau pleaded guilty to the second-degree child rape of Fualaau and served a seven-year stint in prison. In 2017, they split; in 2020, Letourneau died of cancer at the age of 58.

Much of “May December” focuses on Hollywood actor Elizabeth Berry (Portman), a completely fictional character. Over the course of the film, Elizabeth travels to the Georgia home of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Moore), who is living in relative seclusion with her much younger husband, Joe Yoo (Melton), and their children after her release from jail.

Unlike Letourneau, Gracie is a former pet shop owner who is said to have begun a sexual relationship with Joe when he was 13. After Gracie serves out her prison sentence, Joe marries his abuser.

In a Hollywood Reporter interview last week, Fualaau, 40, confirmed he’d seen “May…