[This post contains spoilers for May December]
May December has been playing in select theaters for a few weeks, but now that it’s on Netflix, everyone can watch one of the year’s best films. Todd Haynes’ arguably campy drama stars Natalie Portman as Elizabeth, a TV actress who shadows Gracie (Julianne Moore), a tabloid fixture who slept with a 13-year-old boy named Joe when she was in her 30s, for a role. Gracie and Joe (Charles Melton) are still together when Elizabeth enters their lives — and permanently alters them when she seduces and has sex with Joe, only to turn on him once she got what she wanted. “This is what adults do.”
Portman spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the sex scene. “She is not the most ethically sound researcher,” the Oscar winner said about Elizabeth. “There’s this question and danger about whether art can be amoral.
Portman continued:
“When you go there and when you go into places that her movie is exploring — and trying to get into the mindset and the heart of someone who’s committing a crime — what does that do to you? How does it affect you? How does it affect your morality and your ethics? Can art actually be immoral? Can you depict a crime without somehow endorsing it or exploiting it?”
May December is on Netflix now.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)