Vili Fualaau says he’s “offended” he wasn’t consulted about the Netflix film “May December,” despite the plot being inspired in part by his story.
“I’m still alive and well,” Fualaau said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, published Thursday.
“If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece,” he added.
“Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story,” the 40-year-old Seattle area resident said.
Teacher Mary Kay Letourneau served more than seven years in jail in the 1990s for statutory rape of Fualaau, who at the time was her 12-year-old student. Letourneau and Fualaau later married.
While Fualaau’s story served as the “seed” for the Todd Haynes project starring Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and Charles Melton, writer Samy Burch told the Reporter in November that “it was important to me that this wasn’t the Mary Kay Letourneau story.”
“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,” Fualaau said.
Letourneau died in 2020.
A Netflix representative didn’t immediately return ITK’s request for comment.