Julianne Moore’s New Film Is a Wild Story Inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau’s Scandal


More than 26 years after convicted sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau died, a new film based on her shocking case is garnering early awards season buzz.

On Tuesday, Netflix unveiled the trailer for “May December,” which will arrive in theaters on Nov. 17 before a streaming release in December. The film, directed by Todd Haynes, is based on a television actor Elizabeth Berry (played by Natalie Portman) who is hoping to play the role of Gracie Atherton-Yu (Julianne Moore) in a biographical film.

Gracie, as it turns out, is a former pet store owner who is now living in relative solitude with her husband, Joe (Charles Melton), and their children after being released from prison. The two met when Gracie was 36 and Joe was a 13-year-old seventh grader.

Watch the trailer of ‘May December’ below.

“May December” is clearly reminiscent of Letourneau’s case, although many of the specifics have been changed. In 1997, Letourneau pleaded guilty to the second-degree rape of Vili Fualaau. The former Seattle-area teacher began abusing Fualaau when he was a sixth grade student.

The pair had two children, one of whom was born while Letourneau was behind bars. They married in 2005, about a year after Letourneau was released from more than seven years in prison.

Early reviews of “May December”, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, have been mostly positive. Vulture described the film as “both human and biting”, while The Hollywood Reporter praised Moore and Portman’s “interesting” performances. Both actors are widely expected to be headliners heading into awards season.

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Natalie Portman (left) and Julianne Moore in “May December”.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly published Tuesday, Haynes made no mention of Letourneau, who died in 2020 at age 58. Still, the “Far From Heaven” and “Carol” filmmaker acknowledged that his latest film “had every right to interrogate a society and the legal system.”

“It’s exploring the issues that women have to balance in their lives and the contradictory roles they are often asked to play as objects of desire, and yet, family and As mothers and protectors of the institution of marriage, she has to navigate all these complex demands that come from society,” Haynes said. “I think this is where so much of the universal experience resides.”


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