Mary Kay Letourneau's Ex Vili Fualaau Says He Wasn't Contacted forMay December: 'They Chose to Do a Ripoff'

Mar. 15, 2025

Vili Fualaau; Charles Melton in “May December”.Photo:Doug Hyun / A&E / Courtesy Everett Collection; Francois Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

Doug Hyun / A&E / Courtesy Everett Collection; Francois Duhamel / Courtesy of Netflix

“I’m still alive and well. If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story,” said Fualaau.

Fualaau said “my story is not nearly as simple as"May Decemberportrays it.

Spokespersons for Netflix did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. A rep for Haynes had no comment.

Letourneau, whodied of cancer at 58 in 2020, was a Seattle school teacher sentenced to more than seven years in prison for child rape after she began sexually abusing her sixth-grade student, Fualaau, in 1996. She became pregnant with Fualaau’s children twice before he was 15, despite court orders to keep them apart.

Mary Kay LeTourneau and Vili Fualaau in 2010.Doug Hyun / A&E / Courtesy Everett Collection

Doug Hyun / A&E / Courtesy Everett Collection

May December, meanwhile, is set in Savannah, Georgia, and starsJulianne Mooreas a woman named Gracie Atherton-Yoo, who, when she was 36, began an affair with a 13-year-old at a pet shop where they worked, sparking a tabloid obsession.

The two married after her release from prison, and Joe Yoo (Melton), now 36 in the film and preparing to be an empty-nester as they send their younger kids to college, maintains that the relationship was always consensual.

That is, until a Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), comes to town to research their relationship as she prepares to portray Gracie in a movie about the scandal. Elizabeth’s prodding into their lives causes Joe to rethink his dynamic with Gracie.

Julianne Moore and Charles Melton in “May December”.Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

At the New York Film Festival in September, screenwriter Burch explained how the story stemmed from the real events.

“I really wanted a fictional story that dealt with this tabloid culture of the ’90s that has kind of seemingly led into this true-crime biopic world we’re in now, and kind of question that transition and why we want to keep recreating these stories,” she said. “That was the real jumping off point for me.”

“All of these stories like this that are in the ether are just completely embedded in everyone’s cultural history,” Burch added.

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At that press conference, director Haynes said Moore, 62, took some inspiration from Letourneau when building the character, including giving Gracie a noticeable lisp.

“Also this idea of how does this kind of original relationship occur? What is the myth these two people tell each other about the roles they’re playing?” he continued of the subject matter. “She’s not a pedophile, this woman; she doesn’t have a history of going after every little teenage boy. There’s something very specific that happened to these two people.”

“But it’s shrouded in a fantasy,” continued Haynes, “which is that she is the princess that needs to be rescued from the domestic tower, and he’s the young, virile knight, almost like a Greco-Roman young knight, who’s gonna come in with all this sexual virility and power and beauty and save her. And so she plays the little girl.”

Last month, Melton, 33, toldThe Hollywood Reporterabout the “complex” story and characters inMay December, whichlanded him a Golden Globe nominationfor supporting actor.

Charles Melton, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman at May December’s L.A. premiere on Nov. 16, 2023.Natasha Campos/Getty

Natasha Campos/Getty

“That really was exciting for me: understanding repression and loneliness, and how certain emotions can live in the body, and how that would translate in storytelling,” said Melton. “It really just came down to prepping a lot….”

May Decemberis on Netflix now.

source: people.com