Was Charles Melton’s penis real in May December?
Charles Melton talked about the penis prosthetic in May December in conversation with Variety. “It was very professional,” Melton recalled. “The whole thing. Natalie, Todd, and I met to discuss the scene, walking through it and ensuring everybody was comfortable. There were a few conversations about the prosthetic, regarding what was realistic and what wasn’t. And I had to wear that prosthetic for nine hours that day. I didn’t have anything to drink that morning or the night before. That was an annoying process but still very respectful.”
He talked about the breakdown after the scene to Netflix Tudum. “You see this child rising to the surface where there really wasn’t anything resolved,” Melton says. “Thinking about the scene after the sex scene with Elizabeth, Joe’s really looking at himself for the first time and musters that courage to ask the question we as the audience maybe are asking — and the question he’s never asked himself, which is ‘What if I wasn’t ready to be making those kinds of decisions?’
Body language is a crucial aspect of Joe’s character. “There’s so much pathos, so much going on,” Melton shared with Variety. “There’s this kind of repressed feeling. How they talk, it’s all right in the throat. For [playing] Joe, these words are forming for the first time. It’s like seeing somebody at a party hunched over, protected, and not trying to take up too much space. Joe doesn’t even know he’s doing it. It’s part of his adult child that has translated into the physicality of his movement which he’s not even aware. It’s just him existing.”
Melton’s portrayal turned eyes and garnered accolades like a Gotham Award for Best Supporting Actor and an New York Film Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. “Filming May December those 23 days in Georgia was my greatest experience in my profession as an actor, and there’s been so many things that have led up to that,” Melton said about the nomination. “I’m so grateful and trying to stay as grounded as possible and take things one day at a time. I love Julie, I love Natalie, I love Todd and Sammy. I love everybody that had a part in making this little movie.”
