THROUGHT THE LOOKING CLASS

An actor researches a decades-old, tabloidfuelled scandal with disturbing consequences in MAY DECEMBER, Todd Haynes’ devilish and delicious story of identity, duality and morality. Total Film meets with the director and his cast to discuss one of the slipperiest movies of the year.

How I felt reading it… was so uncertain, fascinated, troubled,’ admits Todd Haynes, talking about the script for his beguiling new film May December, when Total Film meets him pre-strike at the Cannes Film Festival. The day before, at the press conference, the esteemed American filmmaker behind Carol and Far from Heaven brought the house down when he explained the meaning of the film’s title – a relationship, of course, defined by a huge age gap. ‘Some people in France called it “Le Macron”,’ he quipped, alluding to the French President’s much older partner, Brigitte, whom he met when he was 15.

Scripted by casting-director-turned-writer Samy Burch, May December also turns on a coupling between a young man and an older woman. As the film’s opening informs, Gracie Atherton was 36 when she met Joe Yoo, a 13-year-old who worked in the same pet store she did. When they were caught having sex, she was arrested, later giving birth to his baby in jail. Yet they remained together, marrying when she was released – defiant in the face of a national scandal that, even 20-or-so years later, still sees them abused with hate mail.

Loosely, the story is inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher from Washington who pleaded guilty to felony seconddegree rape of a child in 1997, after having sexual relations with a 12-year-old boy. She gave birth to their first child while awaiting sentencing. A plea agreement was reached meaning she only spent three months in jail, but shortly after she was released, police caught her with the boy again. This time, she served six years, giving birth to their second daughter while incarcerated. A year after her release, they married, remaining together for a further 14 years.

Yet that is just the inciting incident for May December, which twists on the notion that Gracie has consented for her and Joe’s story to be told in a new movie. The actor playing her – Elizabeth Berry – arrives at Gracie’s home in Savannah, Georgia, to shadow her. ‘You think Elizabeth will be our way into this weird story and this crazy lady and this young man, and that she’ll be our kind of stable proxy,’ continues Haynes. ‘And then as the story unfolds, you start to question Elizabeth, her motives, the way she treats the people around her.’

This notion stood out for Haynes when he first received the script from star Natalie Portman, after launching her production company MountainA. Portman, 42, was desperate to play Elizabeth, especially having experienced what it’s like to explore real-life characters – whether it’s Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl or former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie, which gleaned her an Oscar nomination. ‘I mean, it definitely has felt like my entire life’s work has been research for this role,’ she nods, sporting a chic black trouser suit when we speak in a rooftop space of Cannes’ J.W. Marriott hotel.

For Portman, though, May December touched on so many issues beyond the potentially vampiric nature of acting. ‘I think that the movie really is asking if art can be amoral,’ she states. ‘We make so many movies and television shows about serial killers, about all sorts of human transgression. And we have this approach of, like, we just want to depict human behaviour. And we’re curious about human behaviour even when it’s a crime. But can we really depict it without passing judgement?’

When Portman and Haynes met, they began to talk about who might play Gracie. ‘That was an easy choice,’ grins Haynes, who went to his long-time collaborator Julianne Moore. The same age – they’re both 62 – they first worked together on Haynes’ 1995 virus drama, Safe. ‘For me, personally, I feel like I understand Todd,’ Moore says. ‘I see his point of view.’ Moreover, this is one actor tailor-made for risqué material – be it a porn star in Boogie Nights or an incestuous socialite in Savage Grace – which explains her fascination in Gracie’s transgressions.

‘The reason this movie feels so dangerous, I think, watching it, is that people don’t know where anyone’s boundaries are,’ she says. ‘You’re in a social situation, somebody does something wildly inappropriate, you’re like, “Why do I feel so uncomfortable? I really feel uncomfortable, I want to get out of here.” It’s because someone has transgressed a social boundary, or an emotional boundary and you feel unsafe. And that’s what I think Todd has captured so beautifully in this film. And that I think is most compelling to me.’

To play Joe, Haynes brought in Alaskaborn Charles Melton – best known for playing Reggie on The CW series Riverdale. When we first see Joe, he’s texting flirty messages to someone else, suggesting all is not well in paradise. ‘The arrival of Natalie’s character just serves as this catalyst for his own awakening,’ adds the 32-year-old, a comment that chimes with Haynes’ notion that the film ‘is ultimately Joe’s story’. A devoted father determined ‘to put his family first’, adds Melton, Joe is more than just a footnote in a scandal. ‘Life does go on beyond the tabloids,’ he adds.

When the production got underway, Haynes and co. decamped to Savannah, Georgia, a city that’s often been used in ‘very gothic’ films like Clint Eastwood’s murderous tale Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, he notes. ‘It’s beautiful; the antebellum architecture that was preserved and has never changed since the Civil War. But now it’s a tourist town 365 days of the year with roaming white tourists with open-container beers at all hours. And so I wanted some of that ugliness in the movie to de-romanticise and take the piss out of Savannah a little bit, too.’ The Atherton-Yoo house was found at nearby Tybee Island. ‘Every place we shot was a real place,’ adds Haynes. ‘No sets at all.’

Haynes provided his cast with a list of movies to watch as part of their prep – films like British infidelity drama The Pumpkin Eater, starring Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch, and Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, a film that deals with duality in much the way May December does. In this case, in one crucial scene, Haynes films Gracie and Elizabeth next to each other as they stare into a mirror, adjusting their make-up. ‘Using the camera as a mirror,’ suggests Portman, ‘it had a sense of reflecting the performance, even when you’re alone. How do we even perform for ourselves? How do we wear masks for ourselves?’

As the scene unfolds, they go from looking directly at the audience to seeing themselves reflected in one another’s eyes. An ‘X’ tape mark aided the actors’ eyelines shooting the scene, ‘so it was technically not intuitive,’ explains Portman, ‘but it was really just an incredible way to have to face the camera and be bare in a weird way, even though you’re self-conscious – exactly like a mirror. Because you’re self-conscious in the most profound sense, looking at yourself. But you’re also alone with yourself. And so there’s a real exposure and rawness you can have. So it was a really interesting exercise.’

Another film that shaped Haynes’ vision here was Joseph Losey’s 1971 film The Go-Between, and in particular the score by Michel Legrand. ‘I saw the movie a year ago and it made me think, “Oh, this is the kind of music I want to try to use in the film,”’ he says. Noting that it puts the viewer on high alert, the dramatic piano strains being ‘so full of dread and foreboding’, Haynes began by writing cues from Legrand’s music into the script, then played it on set. ‘It’s very bold and airy,’ says Melton. ‘It really had an influence in just how those scenes went.’

‘I THINK IT’S MAYBE MY ONLY COMEDY – A VERY DARK COMEDY’

TODD HAYNES

Later, Haynes’ regular editor Affonso Gonçalves began using Legrand’s work as temp music. ‘By the end, the film was built on the score,’ says the director. ‘The tone of the film was resting [on it].’ The film’s composer, Marcelo Zarvos, then rerecorded it, folding it into the original music he’d written. ‘It really was a collaboration between Marcelo and one of the great masters of music and film,’ Haynes adds. Still, moments like Gracie exclaiming, ‘I don’t think we have enough hotdogs,’ as the music booms and the camera zooms play for laughs.

It’s what makes May December one of Haynes’ most complex films – funny, tragic, tawdry and tender. ‘I think it’s maybe my only comedy,’ he feels. ‘I think it is a very dark comedy. It also has real sadness. It is an incredibly witty script. But it took these actors playing it straight and subtly to allow for all of the big gestures around them to make you go, “Oh, OK. We’re allowed to laugh at this!” It gives you permission to enjoy watching it… and not feel too bogged down in it, even though it’s dealing with very disturbing and complex and disquieting themes.’ Or as Portman simply puts it: ‘The movie’s risky.’