Charles Melton Wore A Prosthetic For Nine Hours To Shoot *That* 'May December' Scene

Charles Melton has been getting well-deserved praise for his turn as Joe Yoo in May December, holding his own alongside acting greats Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. He’s had the opportunity to talk at length about filming the movie, and recently opened up about another aspect of the process—the prosthetic penis.

May December revolves around an actress (Portman) researching the past lives of a woman (Moore) who rose to infamy after being caught having sex with a 13-year-old classmate of her son’s, Joe. They eventually married after she was released from prison, but revisiting the past leads to Joe, now an adult, looking at his life through a different lens.

At one point, Portman and Melton’s characters have sex on the floor of a hotel room, which is where the prosthetic came into play.

In conversation with Variety, Melton praised director Todd Haynes’ professionalism in handling the scene, sharing that the two of them, along with Portman, walked through everything ahead of time to ensure “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,” he admitted. “I didn’t have anything to drink that morning or the night before. That was an annoying process but still very respectful.”

Melton is hardly the first actor to open up about donning a prosthetic for pivotal scenes involving sex or nudity. Last year, we heard Theo James discuss the “donkey”-sized prosthetic he was given for season two of White Lotus, and earlier the same year, Christin Byrdsong was all too thrilled to discuss the mechanics of getting his ass eaten by Eric Dane in Euphoria—while revealing some sort of prosthetic was in place to prevent actual contact between them during the scene.

Meanwhile, Andrew Garfield is still fighting the rumors started by Tom Holland that one of the Spider-Men was wearing a fake butt during the filming of No Way Home.

Fake butts and dicks aren’t usually what we think about when we hear the phrase “movie magic,” but sometimes, that’s what it takes to make iconic shots come together.