Natalie Portman says there are “expectations” for how women should behave at Cannes
Todd Haynes’ new romantic drama, May December, which centres on a scandalous age-gap relationship, debuted at Cannes Film Festival this week. Starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, the former plays the older component in the marriage to Charles Melton’s character, who is 13 when they fall in love. The movie received a six-minute standing ovation after its debut.
Per Variety, at today’s press conference for the film, the stars addressed the movie’s themes, with Moore first addressing the concerning dynamic at the start of the relationship. “An age gap is one thing, but a relationship between an adult and a child is a different thing entirely,” Moore said.
“When is age inappropriate? It’s when people are in different places developmentally, when someone is not an adult. This is why we have boundaries around that,” she continued. “The reason why this movie feels so dangerous watching it is because people don’t know where anyone’s boundaries are. It feels scary.”
In May December, Portman plays an actor who travels to Maine to study the life of Moore’s character, who she’s to play in a film. Portman says the film is a study of “the different roles we play in different environments.” She then noted that a discrepancy is displayed at Cannes, where women are mandated to wear heels on the red carpet.
“Even here, the different ways we, as women, are expected to behave at this festival even compared to men… how we’re supposed to look, how we’re supposed to carry ourselves,” she said. “The expectations are different on you all the time. It affects how you behave, whether it’s you buying into or rejecting it. You’re defined by the social structures put on you.”
Following this, both Portman and Moore said they appreciated playing women who are fully developed and “simply human”. Portman said: “It’s incredible to get to be part of a film like this, which has two complex women characters who are full of delicious conflicts,”
Moore added, “Women are not a minority group. We’re 50% of the population. So it’s important we’re treated as such.”
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