00:00Mary Kay Letourneau's ex-husband, Vili Folau, is speaking out about Todd Haynes' May December,
00:05saying no one reached out to him despite being the inspiration for the film.
00:09I think about you all the time.
00:13The film stars Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, and Natalie Portman,
00:17about an actress obsessively researching a married couple with a scandalous past.
00:22In the film, Melton's character is 13 when he is first seduced by Moore's character, who is 36 years old.
00:27There are striking similarities between the couple's story and the Mary Kay Letourneau case,
00:32which May December screenwriter Sammy Birch has cited as her inspiration.
00:36Folau was just 12 when a 34-year-old Letourneau first victimized him in 1996.
00:41Letourneau later pleaded guilty on two counts of child rape.
00:45There's also a key scene in the film which features dialogue lifted directly from a televised interview with Letourneau and Folau.
00:52I'm talking about you.
00:54Who was the boss?
00:55I don't know what was I.
00:56Who was the boss?
00:57What?
00:58Who was the boss back then?
00:58You know, there was me pursuing you.
01:00Who was the boss back then?
01:02However, Folau is saying no one involved in the Netflix-produced May-December has ever reached out to him.
01:07If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece.
01:11Instead, they chose to do a rip-off of my original story.
01:14People, they like see me as a victim.
01:18I wanted it.
01:19He continued,
01:20The creative team behind the film has attempted to create space between the case and the film.
01:29Birch stressed the case was only a jumping-off point, and Moore said this is not the story of Mary Kayla Torno.
01:35However, director Haynes acknowledged that the case ultimately informed his film.
01:40There were times when it became very, very helpful to get very specific about the research, and we learn things from that relationship.
01:46For more on this story, head to THR.com.
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