Natalie Portman insists Netflix film ‘Could December’ is “not meant to be a biopic” of Vili Fualaau and late intercourse offender Mary Kay Letourneau.

Fualaau known as the movie a “ripoff” of his real-life relationship with late intercourse offender Mary Kay Letourneau. Each Moore and Portman say they’re sorry Fualaau feels that approach.

Speaking to Leisure Tonight on the 2024 81st Golden Globes, Portman insisted the movie is “not primarily based on them”.

“Clearly, their story influenced the tradition that all of us grew up in and influenced the concept. However it’s fictional characters which are actually delivered to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so fantastically. It is its personal story, it isn’t meant to be a biopic.”

Whereas Moore informed the publication that she is “sorry he [Fualaau] feels that approach” and that director Todd Haynes “was at all times very clear once we have been engaged on this film that this was an authentic story, this was a narrative about these characters.”

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter earlier in January, Fualaau reveals he was offended by the movie and shared that nobody contacted him about his story.

“This was our doc,” continued Moore. “We created these characters from the web page and collectively.”

“I am nonetheless alive and effectively. If that they had reached out to me, we may have labored collectively on a masterpiece. As a substitute, they selected to do a ripoff of my authentic story,” he says. “I am offended by the complete mission and the dearth of respect given to me — who lived via an actual story and remains to be residing it,” he continued.

The movie – a present awards season favourite – that is loosely primarily based off of the controversial relationship, stars Portman who performs Elizabeth Berry, an actress researching the previous of married couple Gracie (Moore) and Joe (Melton), who met when Gracie seduced Joe when he was 13. Through the film, Joe fathers kids along with his feminine abuser, whom he ultimately marries. The movie additionally options precise quotes from Letourneau and Fualaau’s 2018 interview.

“I like motion pictures — good motion pictures. And I like ones that seize the essence and problems of real-life occasions. You recognize, motion pictures that will let you see or notice one thing new each time you watch them,” Fualaau provides. “These sorts of writers and administrators — somebody who can try this — could be excellent to work with, as a result of my story just isn’t almost so simple as this film [portrays].”

In actuality, Fualaau is Asian/Pacific Islander and was 12 when Letourneau, his trainer, initiated a sexual relationship with him, she was 34. In 1997, Letourneau pleaded responsible to 2 counts of second-degree little one rape and was sentenced to seven years in jail. Letourneau continued her relationship with Fualaau, giving start to 2 kids with him by the point he was 15. Fualaau and Letourneau continued their relationship after she left jail in 2004 and bought married the next 12 months. They separated in 2017 and divorced two years later. Letourneau died in 2020 at 58-years-old after battling stage 4 colon most cancers for months.

The Nationwide Sexual Assault Phone Hotline — 800.656.HOPE (4673) — gives free, 24/7 help for these in want.