'May December' movie on Mary Kay Letourneau 'offended' student lover Vili Fualaau
'If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my story,' Vili Fualaau said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vili Fualaau, the now-40-year-old whose illicit relationship and post-conviction marriage to his sixth-grade teacher made international news, said he is "offended" by the hit Netflix movie based on the '90s scandal.
Although the movie diverges from its real-life counterpart, with the couple meeting in a pet shop rather than a school, "May December" writer Samy Burch cited the Mary Kay Letourneau case as her inspiration for the critically acclaimed 2023 film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Letourneau, then 34, was initially sentenced to six months on two counts of second-degree child rape after she became pregnant with then-12-year-old Fualaau's child.
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Convicted child rapist Mary Kay Letourneau died of cancer in 2020 when she was 58 years old, leaving behind her then-37-year-old ex-husband, Vili Fualaau, and their two daughters. Georgia, the younger daughter, is expected to deliver a baby boy in the coming months. (Ron Wurzer and Reuters)
She would give birth to their first child after pleading guilty and awaiting sentencing, then conceive their second while breaking the terms of her post-release supervision after serving a reduced three-month sentence. Letourneau gave birth to their second daughter during her subsequent seven-year prison stint at Washington Corrections Center for Women, and the pair married upon her release in 2004.
Fualaau, who divorced Letourneau in 2015 and remarried after her death from cancer in 2020, told The Hollywood Reporter that the movie could have been "a masterpiece" – if directors had ever reached out to consult him.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I'm still alive and well," Fualaau told the outlet. "If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together... Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story."
Fualaau still lives in the Seattle area, where he and Letourneau settled after their widely publicized nuptials, according to the outlet, and would have gladly collaborated with filmmakers.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mary Letourneau, then 43, Vili Fualaau, then 22, and their two children are pictured driving along the beach from their home on May 8, 2005, in the Seattle suburb Normandy Park, Washington. (Ron Wurzer/Getty Images)
"I'm offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me – who lived through a real story and is still living it," he added.
He managed to stay out of the limelight after Letourneau's death, keeping the identity of his new partner a secret. But last year, his second daughter with the embattled teacher, now 24, announced her pregnancy – which will make Fualaau a grandfather at 40 years old.
Fualaau stressed that he was not opposed to the concept of a film surrounding his remarkable story. But the portrayal in "May December," he said, was far more "simple" than his reality.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I love movies – good movies... I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realize something new every time you watch them," he told the outlet. "Those kinds of writers and directors – someone who can do that – would be perfect to work with."
Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau pose on April 9, 2005, outside their home in Seattle. Fualaau worked as a DJ and Letourneau as a legal assistant after their marriage, People magazine reported. (Mark Greenberg/AP)
Although Burch has publicly cited Letourneau's case as the jumping off point, Julianne Moore – who played the movie's lead based off the infamous sex offender – stressed at a November premiere that the movie was "not the story of Mary Kay Letourneau."
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But at the same event, according to The Hollywood Reporter, director Todd Haynes said there were "times when it became very, very helpful to get very specific about the research, and we learned things from that relationship."
Fualaau's story has been co-opted for television before, with the USA Network running "All American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Anne Bremner, the Seattle attorney who befriended Letourneau after successfully defending the Des Moines Police Department and the Highline School District against a lawsuit brought by Fualaau's family in 2002, told Fox News Digital that "May December" captured the nuance of the couple's relationship well before Fualaau spoke out against the adaptation:
"Watching that movie, I thought it did well, about the dynamics and the angst Vili and Mary felt about this," she told Fox News Digital last month. "They had some things in there that were straight out of my case – the pink lipstick, the blush, that [Fualaau is] the seducer. [Fualaau] is so well played by Charles Milton, some people say he should get an Oscar. He’s a child raising children."
The subject of who was the "pursuer" in the inappropriate school romance was broached repeatedly as the couple's relationship was dissected in court, Bremner recalled.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a 2018 interview on Channel Seven's "Sunday Night in Australia," taped months before the couple's legal separation, host Matt Doran repeatedly asked Fualaau "who [was] the boss" in the couple's initial romance.
The interview was used as inspiration for one of the film's most harrowing scenes, in which the character played by Moore repeatedly asks Melton's, "Who was the boss? Who was in charge?"
Later, Melton's character confronts Moore's about who really was responsible for their relationship beginning.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Netflix, Burch, Moore, Haynes and Fualaau could not immediately be reached for comment.