The “expectations” for how women should behave at Cannes Film Festival are different than for men, according to May December star Natalie Portman.
“The different ways that we as women are expected to behave at this festival compared to men – how we’re supposed to look, how we’re supposed to carry ourselves – the expectations are different,” said Portman, speaking at the press conference for the Competition title. “How it affects you, whether you’re buying into it or rejecting it or doing something in between - you’re defined by the social structures that are put on you.”
“The whole film is about performance and the different roles we play in different environments, for different people, for ourselves even,” said the actress. “Performing femininity is a recurring theme in Todd’s themes as well, and something I’m curious about and interested in.”
May December follows Gracie and Joe (Julianne Moore and Charles Melton) a couple who, 20 years after their age-gap romance gripped the nation, buckle under pressure when Elizabeth (Portman), an actress, arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Haynes explained the title, an English phrase referring to relationships with a significant age gap. “Some people in France call it ‘Le Macron’,” he quipped, referring to the French president Emmanuel Macron, who is 25 years younger than his wife Brigitte Macron.
“An age gap is one thing, but a relationship between an adult and a child is something else entirely,” said Moore on the topic of such relationships. “When is age inappropriate? It’s inappropriate when people are in different places developmentally – this is why we have boundaries around that. That doesn’t mean that people don’t transgress, in terms of arranged marriages and stuff [like that].
“The reason the movie feels so dangerous is people don’t know where anybody’s boundaries are,” continued Moore. “When you go to a social situation and someone does something inappropriate, you feel unsafe – that’s what Todd has captured so beautifully in this film.”
“There are incredibly problematic aspects of how this relationship [in the film] began, which I think the film works towards a confrontation of between Gracie and Joe, and particularly within Joe,” said Haynes. “Yet this is complicated by the fact that this relationship endured – they survived past the scandal, and raised three kids. There are disparities in age in all relationships, there are human transgressions - these are opportunities for us to look at ourselves and the culture that we live in. Sometimes you find disparities between yourself and the culture.”
May December is Moore’s fifth film with Todd Haynes, a partnership that started with 1995’s Safe and scored the actress an Oscar nomination in 2003 for Far From Heaven.
“I understand Todd- I see his point of view,” said Moore. “The minute I read Safe, I saw exactly how this should be. If I do this and he doesn’t like it, I’m not the right person. It turned out I was seeing what he’s writing – that’s continued to happen.”
Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler produced May December for Killer Films, alongside producers Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas and Portman.
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