The Big Picture

Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore star in Todd Haynes’ May December, available to stream on Netflix. Portman and Moore discuss the tight 23-day shooting schedule and why the script resonated with them. They also share which roles they were most anxious to film and why.

In Netflix’s May December, director Todd Haynes spins a gut-churning true-crime narrative into a dramedy starring Natalie Portman and frequent collaborator, Julianne Moore. The two actresses tell a story based on the first-ever script by Samy Burch that Portman tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub is found “between the lines” of the script.

In the film, Portman plays actress Elizabeth Barry who’s determined to nail a character that exists in what she describes as the “morally gray” areas of life. In order to do so, she spends time with the subject of her next role, Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Moore), a convicted criminal who seduced and raped 13-year-old Joe Yoo, who she eventually marries. The two raise their children in a domestic life that turns the stomachs of the public with a sick, tabloid fascination, but cracks begin to surface with Elizabeth’s presence as she studies their relationship.

During their interview, Portman and Moore discuss the script, how “deceptively simple” it appeared on the page before filming, and finding the moments of “unspoken conflict and drama” on set. They talk about how they pulled off the shoot in under 30 days, why having such a tight schedule can be a good thing for the cast, and which roles throughout their careers scared them the most. You can watch the full interview in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.

May December Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past. Release Date December 1, 2023 Director Todd Haynes Cast Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Andrea Frankle, Charles Melton Rating R Runtime 117 minutes Main Genre Drama
COLLIDER: I like throwing a curveball at the beginning. Everyone thinks they probably know something about the way it is in Hollywood being an actor. What do you think might surprise people to learn about being an actor in Hollywood?

NATALIE PORTMAN: That’s a good question because people do know a lot.

JULIANNE MOORE: They know a lot. I feel like sometimes it’s hard to describe the pleasure that you get in simply doing the work on set. I think people see a lot of stuff about the business. When they think about being an actor in Hollywood, there’s a lot of information about the size of movies and locations and costumes, and a lot of physical things about production, but the thing that I love the most, and I think that people don’t understand, is the sense of play that you have when you’re doing something. How much fun it is, how hard you laugh, how silly things are, how basic it is. You’re eating lunch in a parking lot, you’re getting your makeup in a trailer, the sun is shining in your eyes, you have to be wrapped when the sun goes down. There’s a lot of kind of physicality to it wrapped up with the fun. You’re just pretending. [Laughs]

PORTMAN: That’s good. That’s a really nice thing. I was thinking of much shallower things.

MOORE: Were you?

PORTMAN: Like you spend hours of your life in makeup.

MOORE: She’s shallow.

PORTMAN: [Laughs] I’m shallow. She’s the deep one.

MOORE: She’s beautiful. [Laughs]

PORTMAN: Thank you. That’s all I ever wanted anyone to say.

‘May December’s Story Between the Lines
Image via Cannes

I watch a lot of movies and one of the things I love about this movie, one of the many things, is that I never could predict what the next scene was going to be. I also love how the script never demonizes anyone. It never judges. Can you both talk about the script and, honestly, how good it is?

PORTMAN: It’s so good. It’s really hard to believe that it’s Samy Burch’s first script that she wrote on spec. There are so many brilliant choices, and there’s so much unspoken conflict and drama in the scenes that sometimes would reveal itself to me while we were doing it. Like I would think, “Oh, this is a tiny little scene,” and then we’d start saying it, and I was like, “Oh, there’s all these lines that have almost been erased in here.” Everything is between the lines. It’s so well written. And there’s amazing things that she brought into it, like I felt like her casting experience before the casting scenes, that’s like something that’s so kind of wicked in the script. The casting of the boys, of young Joe, I think only she could have conjured that up.

MOORE: It was deceptively simple, the language. That was the thing. And then I said to Samy, too, when you get into it, it’s really muscular. It could hold a lot, a lot of feeling and a lot of humor. And sometimes the language, when we would say it to one another, you’d realize how challenging it was, that one character was kind of challenging another, but it didn’t seem that way on the page. It’s just when it came out of your mouth, you’d be like, “Whoa!”

Image via Netflix

The other thing about this, which most people won’t realize, is you didn’t have a lot of time to shoot this. I want to say it was like 23 days or something like that. As an actor, do you enjoy that pressure of knowing, “I might only have two takes. I have to nail this?” Because it’s so different than if you’re making a bigger film.

PORTMAN: Well, I think when you have a director as prepared and precise and visionary as Todd is, you can feel comfortable in that scenario and then it just becomes fun. You’re all just in it and the train’s going and everyone’s on their A-game, and like you’re saying, has to kind of execute to make it work. He’s such a great leader for that because he really gets everyone on the same page and knows exactly what he’s going to do and is so professional and on it, because you can’t be anything but. And then he’s just the most genuine, kind, loving, and just a beautiful artist. So, when you’re in those hands, you can kind of do anything.

MOORE: Yeah, you always want more time, but it’s like what they say in preschool, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” [Laughs] You’re like, “Well, here we go!” But it’s true. I think people knowing that that’s what it was and that we had to be prepared, and Todd was so prepared, you’re like, “Well, okay, we’re ready. We’re just going to figure this out.” And Todd’s also very joyful. He laughs. I mean, that’s the other thing, too, you can always hear him laughing. And when he does laugh you know that he’s getting what he wants, so it’s very encouraging.

What Makes Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore Nervous?
Image via Searchlight Pictures

I’m a big fan of both of your work and you guys have done such tremendous work throughout your careers. I’m just curious, with the previous projects you’ve worked on, what was the one that before you stepped on set you thought, “I’m really nervous about this, like on a level that is not usual for me?”

PORTMAN: Oh, I’m like, “All of them.” [Laughs]

MOORE: I’m always nervous.

PORTMAN: I’m always terrified. I think Jackie was especially scary for me because it was a real, very well-known person, so I was like, “Oh boy, if this is a fail, this is the biggest fail because everyone will recognize it.” It’s not like you can be like, “I’m making it up.” You’re really comparing yourself to someone who’s very well-documented.

MOORE: Iconic.

PORTMAN: That was scary. That was the hardest, probably. But I’m always scared.

MOORE: I’m always scared, too. I was scared right before we were doing this. I actually called Todd, and I was like, “I don’t think I can do this. This is way harder than I thought.” But I think the worst thing for me was having to sing in Dear Evan Hansen, which I really wanted to do. I love that song, and I really wanted to sing it, but I thought I would swallow my tongue. I was so scared. I was like, “I’m going to choke. I’m literally gonna choke on my own saliva in the middle of this.”

PORTMAN: You did it live?

MOORE: Yeah, we did it live.

PORTMAN: Wow.

MOORE: I was like, “Why are we doing this live? This is a movie!” [Laughs]

I have to say I’m a big fan of that movie, and I still can’t believe what Ben [Platt] does in terms of the singing and the crying at the same time.

MOORE: He’s such a beautiful, beautiful singer. That voice is just like magic, and his ease when he sings and his access to his emotions. I just admire him so much. It’s beautiful, beautiful.

May December will be available to stream on Netflix on December 1 in the U.S.

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