May December viewers horrified by real life interview that inspired film

Kayla Harrington
Julianne Moore and Charles Melton in May December

With the release of Netflix’s May December, fans resurfaced an interview from the couple who inspired the film and they’re horrified.

When it comes to movies inspired by real life events, it can be easy to forget that the story you’re watching happened to a real life person.

Especially when the true story is centered around a pedophilic “love” story like Netflix’s new film May December, which follows an actress who meets and studies a 36-year-old woman who abused and then married her 13-year-old male victim for a movie role.

While the movie stars Natalie Portman as the actress and Julianne Moore and Charles Melton as the couple, fans rediscovered an old interview clip of the real couple, Mary Katherine Letourneau and Vili Fualaau, and were horrified to see how disturbing the real situation was. Warning: slight spoilers below!

May December fans find real interview clip hard to watch

Netflix recently released May December onto its platform and it wasn’t long until viewers stumbled upon an interview clip that featured a harrowing exchange between Letourneau and Fualaau.

In the clip, the interviewer comes down hard on Letourneau and calls her out for actively pursuing a sexual realtionship with Fualaauwhen he was 12-years-old.

However, Letourneau is quick to shut down that line of thinking by repeatedly asking Vili “who was the boss,” implying that he was the “pursuer” in their relationship despite him being a child and her sixth grade student.

“So many contemporary movies and shows based on real events traffic in imitation, with uncanny impressions seen as the highest achievement,” one Twitter user wrote along with the video clip, “What May December does to incorporate this moment is 1000x more interesting.”

In the film, Joe (Melton) confronts Gracie (Moore) about the fact that he was too young to consent to their relationship after having a sexual encounter with Elizabeth (Portman) and discussing aspects of their relationship that the movie was bringing up.

However, Gracie quickly flips the narrative on Joe and accuses him of seducing her, quoting Mary Katherine verbatim by continuously asking “Who’s the boss?”

It’s an incredibly harrowing scene that shows the lengths of gaslighting Gracie would go to in order to keep Joe in line and their relationship as perfect as she wants it to be because the truth was he was too long and she abused him.

While May December is very hard to watch knowing this situation happened to a real person, the movie is currently sitting at a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics hailing it as a “dark, unsettling drama with nervy comic undertones.”

May December is available to stream on Netflix now and you can check out more of our coverage below: 

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About The Author

Kayla is a TV and Movies Writer at Dexerto. She's huge fan of Marvel (especially if Wanda Maximoff is involved), shows that make you laugh then cry, and any cooking show found on the Food Network. Before Dexerto, she wrote for Mashable, BuzzFeed, and The Mary Sue. You can contact her at kayla.harrington@dexerto.com