The One Thing That Almost Cost Charles Melton His May December Role

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If I told you the best performance in a film featuring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman would come from Charles Melton, an up-and-comer best known for "Riverdale," would you believe me? Well, if not, watch "May December."

Melton plays Joe Yoo; when he was 12 years old, Joe was groomed and molested at his afterschool pet store job by his supervisor, 36-year-old Gracie Atherton (Moore). Years later in 2015, Joe is married to Gracie with three kids, but while he acts the part of a suburban dad (at Gracie's repeated direction), it's a role he took on before he was ready. "May December" is inspired by the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau. None of the three leads have enviable roles to play, though Melton has the most baldly sympathetic; a victim who hasn't come to terms with being one. Joe has limited emotional range, sure, but not because Melton is acting wooden; he's playing a man who could never metamorphose past childhood as the butterflies he rears have.

In an interview with Vulture back in September 2023, "May December" director Todd Haynes shared some details about Melton's casting. Unfamiliar with his work on "Riverdale," Haynes considered turning him away. Why? "His looks were almost a deterrent."

The right amount of handsome

You might think an actor losing a part because they're too attractive is ridiculous. But think about it. A common refrain about, say, Brad Pitt or Colin Farrell is that they're a "character actor in a leading man's body." Meaning, they've got the acting talent but they're too perfectly handsome to be believable onscreen as a normal person. This same problem could've kept Melton from securing the part of Joe.

Haynes continued: "I felt that Joe would be a good-looking man, but Charles has that sort of hunkiness and pinup quality that wasn't necessarily how I pictured him." 

Haynes is a gay man, so he's more sympathetic to the female gaze than most other famous male auteurs (particularly when it comes to desire). Even as a cishet dude, I'd agree Joe does have to be good-looking for perverse story reasons; it helps explain why a sexual predator targeted him. To compensate, Melton gained about 40 pounds to become "something more familiar: a suburban man in this place," as Haynes put it. Still, Joe has Melton's chiseled face crowned by wavy hair. When he takes his shirt off, there's barely any noticeable flab either. That Melton's appearance in "May December" qualifies as an actor making himself less attractive is pretty dispiriting — but ultimately a societal problem, far outside the scope of Melton's control.

A child in a man's body

It helps that Melton's performance wasn't only about gaining weight. As Haynes told Vulture:

"There's such remarkable physicality in the choices [Melton] made as an actor. A friend of mine saw a cut of it, and he said, 'Charles moves like a child and an old man, a combination of the two' — which makes so much sense given his predicament."

As for how he conducts himself in character, I honed in on how Joe speaks — or often doesn't. Like an introverted (or abused) child, he's quiet and trails off or stumbles when trying to explain himself. Words fail him around Gracie, Elizabeth (Portman), and even his own kids. Melton has already been getting awards for his performance — he won Best Supporting Actor at the New York Film Critics Circle in November — not to mention some early Oscar buzz. Robert Downey Jr. in "Oppenheimer" has been the assumed frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor at the 96th Academy Awards, but him losing to a breakout performance? That's a turn of events worthy of Lewis Strauss. All this is to say that "May December" without Melton would've been a lesser film. Don't let anyone tell you there's anything as too hot.

"May December" is streaming on Netflix.