Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore have defended their movie May December following criticism from its inspiration Vili Fualaau.

Todd Haynes’ new movie was influenced by the scandal surrounding sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau, who started a sexual relationship with Fualaau in 1996 when he was 12 and she was 34.

Fualaau, who was married to Letourneau between 2005 and 2019, told The Hollywood Reporter last week that he was “offended” by the film for allegedly ripping off his story.

Responding to the criticism, Portman told Entertainment Tonight, “I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s not based on them. Obviously, their story influenced the culture that we all grew up in and influenced the idea. But it’s fictional characters that are really brought to life by Julianne Moore and Charles Melton so beautifully. It’s its own story, it’s not meant to be a biopic.”

In May December, Portman plays an actress named Elizabeth who visits married couple Gracie and Joe, played by Moore and Charles Melton, to prepare for playing Gracie in a movie. Screenwriter Samy Burch has cited the Letourneau scandal as an inspiration for her screenplay.

Moore added that Haynes “was always very clear when we were working on this movie that this was an original story”.

“This was a story about these characters. So that’s how we looked at it too. This was our document. We created these characters from the page,” she stated.

Fualaau, now 40, said last week that he was offended by the “lack of respect” given to him.

“I’m still alive and well,” he declared. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a rip-off of my original story.”

Letourneau died in 2020 aged 58.

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