Vili Fualaau, Mary Kay Letourneau's ex-husband, ripped Todd Haynes' Oscar buzz melodrama "May December" for its lack of "respect" for his life story.
"May December" follows the relationship between Gracie (Julianne Moore) and the much younger Joe (Charles Melton), with whom she began a relationship when he was 13 and she was 36. While Haynes' movie is fiction based on Samy Burch's screenplay, it is loosely inspired by the real-life controversial and predatory relationship that began when Fualaau was 12 and Letourneau was 34 in the '90s. The Hollywood Reporter said that Fualaau, now 40, has seen the movie and felt exploited by the media yet again.
“I’m still alive and well,” said Fualaau. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a rip-off of my original story.”
Burch has acknowledged that Fualaau and Letourneau are the film's inspirations, although it is not their story. The movie's details differs from the real-life people, such as changing ethnic backgrounds (Joe is half-Korean in the film, and Fualaau is Samoan). "May December" does however mimic the dialogue copied from a viral televised interview with the couple.
“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,” Fualaau said.
During the film's press rounds, the creative team behind "May December" tried to separate itself from the real-life inspiration. But Haynes said, "There were times when it became very, very helpful to get very specific about the research, and we learned things from that relationship."
Representatives for Netflix, Haynes and Melton did not respond to a request to comment, THR reported.
