Todd Haynes talks ‘May December’ and Julianne Moore at Cannes
Director Todd Haynes is currently at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of his upcoming film, May December. The filmmaker will stay in France throughout May, though, as he is also the centre of a career retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which will explore his work, including Far From Heaven, Carol and Wonderstruck.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Haynes discussed his new film and what it has been like working with Julianne Moore once again. This script of Samy Burch’s was pretty special; it was something I earmarked right away and wanted to start talking to Natalie about,” he said. “We didn’t really know when it could happen, but it was just written with such a gripping restraint and intelligence and perceptiveness about the place and people.”
“It kept you in a state of constant anticipation and moral uncertainty in ways that I just found to be so exciting,” Haynes added. “This story is about two women, and the second character was just an unbelievably complex, juicy and ambiguous character who was scripted as someone who was about 60 years old. I immediately had an idea about who that might be.”
That woman was, of course, Julianne Moore. Discussing how he knew she was right for the role, Haynes said, “I just said to Natalie one day, ‘What do you think about the idea of Julie?’ And she was like, ‘Do you think she would do it?!’ (Laughs.) I said, ‘I have a feeling she might be compelled by this, yeah’ And she was. She was so enthusiastic when she first read that script. There are real-life examples of the type of tabloid relationship seen in the movie.”
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.