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Vili Fualaau, the supposed inspiration for Charles Melton’s character in Todd Haynes’s Oscar-hopeful May December, has taken offense on the director’s newest undertaking.
The Carol director’s latest black comedy stars Julianna Moore as Gracie, a former convict jailed for having sexual relations along with her younger son’s school-aged pal, Joe – performed as an grownup by Melton. It additionally stars Natalie Portman as washed-up actor Elizabeth who’s set to painting Gracie in a forthcoming movie.
Haynes’s movie shares simple similarities to the notorious Nineties case of Mary Kay Letourneau, the previous college instructor who was convicted of raping then-12-year-old Fualauu when she was 34. They bought married in 2005, a yr after Letourneau was launched from jail.
Screenwriter Samy Burch has beforehand acknowledged Letourneau’s story as inspiration. However; Fualaau, who’s now 40, says he was by no means contacted by the May December crew.
“I’m still alive and well,” he advised The Hollywood Reporter. “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.
“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,” he stated.
“I love movies – good movies,” Fualauu continued. “And I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realise something new every time you watch them.
“Those kinds of writers and directors – someone who can do that – would be perfect to work with, because my story is not nearly as simple as this movie [portrays],” he added.
The Independent has contacted the May December crew for remark.
Fualauu and Letourneau shared two daughters, one among whom Letourneau gave beginning to in jail. The couple divorced in 2019, and Letourneau died in 2020, aged 58, of colon most cancers.
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Melton’s portrayal of Joe has him tipped for a 2024 Oscar nomination. He has already taken residence the Gotham Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance, leaving Riverdale followers to foretell a win for him at this yr’s Academy Awards.
“Haynes has directed a film with so many deliciously clashing styles that it’s as much a trashy soap as it is a torrid, probing melodrama,” The Independent’s Geoffrey Macnab wrote in his four-star evaluate of the film.
May December is streaming on Netflix.
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