Charles Melton has earned major critical acclaim for his role as Joe Yoo in Todd Haynes’ drama May December, but while Melton is best known to audiences as Reggie Mantle in The CW’s Riverdale, it turns out that his May December costar Natalie Portman had never seen Melton’s work before — and was blown away by him in the film.
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“I had never seen him before,” Portman told Variety. “He just blew me away. Such an incredible actor and such a fun person. We had a great time.”
When asked if she checked out Riverdale after working with Melton, Portman admitted that she had not.
“I have not,” she said, before adding, “I will right away.”
Melton Credits May Riverdale for Preparing Him for May December
Melton previously explained that his years on Riverdale actually helped prepare him for his award-nominated role in May December, explaining that the show’s intense production schedule served as an “acting school” experience.
“Ten months out of the year, 22 episodes, eight to 10 days to film one episode.… That’s a lot of work in a short amount of time, and it really took everybody on set to come together to execute this process,” Melton explained. “That experience alone, and working with nearly 100 directors on that show, really gave me this confidence and this foundation — as, like, my acting school in a way — to really be able to come to a set like Todd Haynes’ and just completely let go.”
What Is May December About?
In May December, twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance, a married couple buckle under the pressure when a Hollywood actress meets them to do research for a film about their past. The film also stars Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Cory Michael Smit, Elizabet Yu, Gabriel Chung, Piper Curda, D.W. Moffett, and Lawrence Arancio.
“There’s just something about repression and tragedy and loneliness that I’m attracted to in characters, and Joe had a complex mix of all those things,” Melton said elsewhere in the interview. “In spite of whatever the subject matter was, just understanding this human without any sort of formulated opinion or judgment and complete empathy really allowed me to just go to places that I always hoped are possible with Todd, Julie and Natalie.”
May December is now streaming on Netflix. All seasons of Riverdale are also now streaming on Netflix.
