Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman addressed Vili Fualaau‘s comments about their film May December while speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the Golden Globes on Sunday (January 7th). Fualaau told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview that the movie was a “ripoff” of his relationship with his ex-wife, Mary Kay Letourneau, and that he was “offended by the entire project.”
“It's not based on them,” Portman told the outlet. “Obviously, their story influenced the culture that we all grew up in and influenced the idea. But it's fictional characters that are really brought to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so beautifully. It's its own story, it's not meant to be a biopic.”
Moore added that director Todd Haynes “was always very clear when we were working on this movie that this was an original story, this was a story about these characters … We created these characters from the page and together.”