“I was at a point where I didn’t have any representation. I think this was my ninth or tenth spec script and I hoped this would be the one to break in with,” proclaims Samy Burch about her first produced film May November directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore as Gracie and Charles Melton as Joe. The story is based on a scandalous incident in the 1990s when a Seattle schoolteacher was convicted of raping her sixth grade student and later bore his child in prison.

May December could have defaulted to a sombre, earnest complexion to tell this deeply unsettling story of social ills and abuse of power. While it contains many of these serious elements, especially during the scenes with Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) who interviews Gracie and Joe to prepare for her upcoming film role, there are some curiously comedic curveballs in the film.

“My ambitions were that it would be a mix of tones, that there would be this dark comedy and really emotionally-heartbreaking character portraits that were intermingled, and had something to say about performance, sensationalism and media,” continues Burch.

Samy Burch. Photo by Natasha Campos/ Getty Images for Netflix

May November picks up after much of the frenzied tabloid activity had died down. Gracie and Joe are living happily with their children in Savannah, GA with little residual community outrage.

Tabloid culture has changed drastically since the advent of internet news where rapid cycles are moving even faster and are more constant. “When I was growing up stories like this were so prevalent… Tonya Harding, Monica Lewinsky, Amy Fisher, and Heidi Fleiss,” recalls Burch who refers to them as ‘novelty criminals.’”

The screenwriter also asserts that tabloid culture is undergoing a “period of reassessment” where wrongs are corrected after the dust has settled. Conversely, the social  reassessment becomes an even more sensationalized version of the original events. In the case of May December, it feels like a less sensationalized version of the original scandal.

A Mix Of Tones

Samy Burch didn’t opt for comedy and drama on opposite ends of the tonal spectrum to tell her story. She wanted to shake things up. “We’re also seeing the absurdity of the process, and how foolhardy it is to try to capture the truth in these very complicated situations that you can’t even fully see when you’re in them.”

Despite some uncomfortable humor, the screenwriter maintains groundedness to the characters, especially in the way they interact with each other like a regular married couple walking their dogs and preparing for their kids’ graduations.

Burch doesn’t excuse Gracie’s actions, nor does she want the audience to dwell on judging her. She’s more interested in mining the flawed humanity of the character. “Gracie’s a very disturbed person with emotional volatility.” She exhibits a childish naïvity as she tries to rationalize her actions without acknowledging their repercussions.

“We are a little ahead of Joe, but we can feel how messy this is, how complicated it is for someone in his position to have to work through it. The media and the walls that have been built so high and there’s a lot of denial – some of its wilful. Gracie has definitely put those bricks there. Joe’s probably more protective, especially when there are kids in the equation.”

Who Are Gracie & Joe?

Samy was mindful to construct these characters as fictionalized versions of the events her story is based on. “What I like to do in my process is write character biographies just for myself. I don’t even think Todd Haynes saw them. It’s helpful because I get a lot of information about character and their voice tends to come through. These are just simple things like history, family, where they’re born… things that affected them.”

Burch created Gracie as being prim and hyper-feminine who wears her fragility like a badge of honor to make warped sense of her situation. “She was surrounded by really masculine men and other very subservient women. That was built into her childhood. She did what she was told and was very protected. I think she sees herself as a little girl… as a little princess.”

The writer imagined Joe as a provider and caretaker. “I liked this idea that he had to care for one of his sisters and he was always put in his place because she was older than him. Joe’s been made to be a caretaker for Gracie’s emotions and forced into fatherhood. All of that is a big source of his inner core.”

Joe is ostensibly the dutiful family man who hasn’t taken the time to process what happened to him and Gracie reminds him that he’s always in control despite being emotionally immature to be a father and husband at the time.

Gracie and Joe come to explore their feelings at a particular time in their lives – when their youngest children are graduating. “That’s what makes it very complicated. It would be much easier if every bad thing that happened to you was only bad or only good, and there’s nothing that is confusing, muddled, or hard to work through.”

There’s a shift in Joe’s emotional plates where he can “start to ‘unbrave’ what the last twenty-five years of his life has been.” He’s slowly realizing that he may have been too young for the responsibilities of fatherhood after being stifled by family life.

Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore) & Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Gracie, on the other hand, is more static in nature. “She is in some ways unknowable because it’s unclear how aware she is of this manipulation. Is she as natural as a tiger in the jungle or is there some manner of purposeful artifice that she’s doing? Gracie is unable to look at herself, or refuses to look at herself and her behavior.” She lives impulsively in the moment and uses her delusional and distorted rationale so Joe can save her. After all, she believes she can tell a judge that she and Joe are happily married and that will put an end to the matter.

Elizabeth acts as a catalyst for the process when she arrives and interviews Gracie and Joe. She probes the issues facing relationships with major age differences to give both herself and the story more depth. “Joe’s never asked those questions. He’s never wanted to or had the emotional space to.”

She’s also a source of the Hollywood glib humor of the tabloid world. “So much of what most of the people in this movie say is not honest, but especially for Elizabeth, I think she’s unable to be authentic at a barbecue. There’s a real falseness from the very beginning.”

Elizabeth is more than a narrative device to extract information for her role. “We understand that she’s unhappy with her fiancé. She’s having an affair with the director of the movie. She’s very bitter about her TV show.”

Getting Todd Haynes Interested

After years in the representation wilderness, Samy Burch eventually got signed by a manager. The first producers that became attached were Jessica Elbaum and Will Ferrell at Gloria Sanchez Productions. They sent the script to Natalie Portman and she said that she wanted to play the part of Elizabeth and produce May December as well. In turn, she sent the script to Todd. They had never worked together, but had been looking to collaborate on a project. This was it.

“From the beginning, it felt like we all were on the same page. Todd’s notes are so beautiful and thoughtful and leave a lot of room for interpretation, which was something I hadn’t experienced before. I felt trusted and my vision respected,” says Burch.

“One of my favorite notes that really had a big impact overall, was he said to ‘Add More Fog.’ It was a lot of the work in some ways because the rewrites became about subtraction, especially in dealing with Joe. There were times in previous drafts where he was able to articulate his experience more readily than what we see in the film.”

“I think that’s the case with a lot of Todd’s films. There’s this active participation as an audience member to try to fill in what Joe should be saying.”

Samy was inspired as a storyteller beyond Todd’s feedback because she feels he’s collaborative, confident, intuitive, and bold.