A scandalous age-gap relationship plays out at the center of “May December,” a romantic drama directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. Moore plays the “December” to Charles Melton’s much-younger “May,” whose character was just 13 when the two fell in love. Moore is quick to acknowledge the potentially concerning dynamic given the particular time in their lives when their characters first met.
“An age gap is one thing, but a relationship between an adult and a child is a different thing entirely,” Moore said at Sunday’s Cannes Film Festival press conference for “May December,” which debuted the night prior and was embraced in the Grand Palais with an enthusiastic six-minute standing ovation.
“When is age inappropriate? It’s when people are in different places developmentally, when someone is not an adult. This is why we have boundaries around that,” she adds. “The reason why this movie feels so dangerous watching it is because people don’t know where anyone’s boundaries are. It feels scary.”
In “May December,” Portman plays an actress who travels to Maine to study the life of a real woman (Moore) she’s set to play in a film. Moore and Melton portray a married couple whose 20-year age gap inspired a national tabloid scandal. As they plan to send their twin girls off to college, the family dynamic begins to buckle as Portman delves into their past.
Portman describes the film as a study of “the different roles we play in different environments.” She observes that discrepancy is particularly on display at the Cannes Film Festival, where women are mandated to wear heels on the red carpet.
“Even here, the different ways we, as women, are expected to behave at this festival even compared to men… how we’re supposed to look, how we’re supposed to carry ourselves,” she said. “The expectations are different on you all the time. It affects how you behave, whether it’s you buying into or rejecting it. You’re defined by the social structures put on you.”
In that regard, Portman and Moore spoke of their appreciation in getting to play women who are fully developed and “simply human.”
“It’s incredible to get to be part of a film like this, which has two complex women characters who are full of delicious conflicts,” says Portman.
Moore adds, “Women are not a minority group. We’re 50% of the population. So it’s important we’re treated as such.”