Charles Melton has, it seems safe to say, just had a life-changing experience. It’s not merely the remarkable, heartbreaking, Oscar-contending work that the actor does in the new film May December (now in select theaters, and hitting Netflix on December 1). Starring as the repressed longtime husband of the woman he first started an affair with when he was 13 years old—she was in her late 30s—Melton subtly embodies that trauma with a hauntingly awkward physicality and a kind of vocal timidity. He holds his own against two Oscar winners in Julianne Moore, playing his profoundly damaged wife, Gracie, and Natalie Portman, playing the actor assigned to portray Gracie in an upcoming movie. He effectively reintroduces himself, coming into the project best known for roles on teen projects like Riverdale and The Sun Is Also a Star.
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But in speaking with the 32-year-old Melton, it’s clear the role’s impact on him began long before he’d even booked the role, starting with the chance to audition. On this week’s Little Gold Men (listen or read below), Melton describes the six-week process of preparing a self-tape, then taking in notes from director Todd Haynes, as the best experience of his career. From there he got to simply absorb: watching some of the most lauded actors alive at work. Taking viewing recommendations from Haynes, ranging from Ingmar Bergman to Mike Nichols to Wong Kar-Wai. Taking a nugget from a Bryan Cranston interview to inform his preparation approach. Immersing himself in Heath Ledger’s Brokeback Mountain work to get a master class in an empathetic, nuanced performance of repression. Digging into his own complex upbringing and adult celebrity to better understand a character whose childhood was taken away from him, and whose adulthood got tracked in trashy tabloids.
All of that goes into what Melton brings to May December’s Joe—and, as we discuss over our wide-ranging conversation, what made this the perfect moment to take a huge career leap.
Vanity Fair: How did you get involved here?
Charles Melton: It was the summer of last year. I got a self-tape request from my team, and I saw that it was May December, directed by Todd Haynes, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. My heart dropped with excitement and that led to me self-taping for the next five days. I spent six hours every day just trying to get that one tape, completely exhausting myself, and that was the start of the journey of preparation because I felt immediately connected to the story of Joe and what he represented—just the complexity that he had, staying with that for almost six weeks before I found out that I booked the role.
It was one self-tape. Then a week later, I got notes from my team saying, “These are the notes from Todd Haynes.” I was like, “No way!” [Laughs.] And then I sent in another self-tape, and then I flew out to New York City a few weeks later to do a chemistry read with Julie [Moore] and Todd in person. And I remember standing outside the casting door. Lights were coming through the cracks of the door outside, and I heard them talking about the scene and how it was going to work, and my heart was beating out of my chest. Then I walked in, and the next thing I knew I was walking out with Laura Rosenthal, the casting director. “What just happened?” Then it was about a week before I found out I booked it.
That is quite a process. Had you ever, just with the initial self-tape experience alone, done something that intensive to go out for a role?
I always like to try to, but there was so much in between the text, to really explore this character. I remember while self-taping, I'm like, “This is either really bad, or maybe it'...okay. I don't know?” I'd never had the chance to dive in like that before.
It sounds like you felt yourself taking a bit of a risk, a bit of a swing. At that point, when you're thinking about this character, and there's so much to get into with him, what are those early things that you're figuring out about Joe?
I have a couple of coaches that I work with, one for script analysis, and another coach where we really just dive into the minutiae of the emotions and everything. It's this holistic conversation about who this person is. There's this sense of loneliness and this repression that I really was drawn to with Joe. When it comes to a character, you come to it with empathy, and you bring bits and pieces of your own experience and humanity and the humanity around you to inform whatever choices you make. I was thinking about this internalized weight, this tragedy in a way that Joe had. It made me think about, Was there ever a time in my life where I felt this just intense sense of responsibility and stepping up to the plate and showing up?
It made me think about my dad, who I love dearly, and I wouldn't change anything. I grew up an army brat. My mom's Korean, my father met her in Korea; I'm first generation on my mom's side, and my dad served 20 plus years while I was growing up. I remember we were stationed in Illesheim, Germany, at this military base. I was 11 years old and my dad sat me down the night before he left just talking about integrity and honor of how I need to take care of my two younger sisters and my mom, and how our Jack Russell Terrier, Diamond Jack, was going to be by my side—to show up for them and be a good big brother and a good son. This was the night before he left to go to the Desert Storm for a year.
When you're a kid and you're that young and your hero's giving you this speech and really asking you to step up to the plate, you are just excited. You're like, “Okay, yeah, I'll do it.” You'll put on that shoe that's a little too big for you at first that you'll eventually grow into it. Though the circ*mstance with Joe is completely different, that informed certain choices and thinking about the different things that Joe carries internally, and how that would look externally.
