Results: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore respond to 'May December' inspiration Vili Fualaau's criticism
Published on 01/10/2024
Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman are responding to criticism from "May December" inspiration and Mary Kay Letourneau's ex-husband, Vili Fualaau.
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2024/01/09/may-december-julianne-moore-natalie-portman-vili-fualaau-criticism/72159572007/?tbref=hp
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2024/01/09/may-december-julianne-moore-natalie-portman-vili-fualaau-criticism/72159572007/?tbref=hp

QUESTIONS
GO to COMMENTS
Comments
1.
1.
The film follows TV star Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) as she travels to Savannah, Georgia, to shadow Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), whom she is set to play in an upcoming movie. Decades earlier, when she was in her 30s, Gracie had been convicted of seducing and raping 13-year-old Joe (Charles Melton), whom she later married and started a family with. As their now-grown kids prepare to graduate high school, Joe begins to process his trauma while Elizabeth attempts in vain to understand Gracie. Have you seen the movie May December?
Yes
9%
249 votes
No
91%
2451 votes
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In real life, Letourneau, a suburban Washington teacher, raped and later married her former sixth-grade student, Fualaau. The case drew massive media attention as Letourneau, then 34, and Fualaau, then 12, were found in a minivan in June 1996 at a marina outside Seattle. Letourneau would become pregnant months later. Do you remember this case in the media? Yes
50%
1345 votes
No
37%
1009 votes
Not Applicable
13%
346 votes
3.
3.
Fualaau spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the film, sharing that no one involved in the film ever reached out to him. "I'm still alive and well. 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," he said in an interview published last week. Do you think the film's producers should have at least contacted Fualaau about the movie, since the story is so similar to his real life storY? Yes
48%
1299 votes
No
20%
531 votes
Undecided
32%
870 votes
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4.
"I'm very sorry that he feels that way," said Moore, 63. "I mean, (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. So that's how we looked at it too. This was our document, we created these characters from the page and together." Portman, 42, echoed Moore's reaction, saying the couple "influenced" the film but is "its own story." Do you think May December is it's own story, or a ripoff of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau's story? It has its own story
13%
357 votes
It's a ripoff of the true story
30%
815 votes
I don't know enough to comment
57%
1528 votes
COMMENTS