- Joe represents the surety
and innocence throughout "May December."
He's a loving father, a loving husband, a provider.
At times, he's so much older than his age.
And at times, you can really see his adolescence.
- I'm, I'm a part of this Facebook group.
- Mm-hmm. (affirmative)
Anyway, I know this sounds really dorky.
- Not at all.
- At a young age,
he was given an immense sense of responsibility
while being under public scrutiny.
That really kind of created this adult man-child.
Throughout the film,
we see this arrested development come to the surface
through Elizabeth's character probing
and asking these questions.
- (whispers) I probably shouldn't have said that.
You won't tell anyone, will you?
- No worries.
- We're in real-time, watching Joe
as the audience process each and every moment.
There's so much power, and quietness, and subtlety.
I think about some of my favorite performances.
"In the Mood For Love," by Wong Kar-wai,
Tony Leung and what he does.
He says so little, but it says so much throughout the film.
Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain" just broke my heart.
The experience different than Joe's,
but the feeling of this internal weight
and repressing that was really tragic,
but also so beautiful.
(beautiful music)
When it came to the physicality of Joe
and what he ended up looking like,
I probably put on close to 40 pounds.
And that was really natural.
I really enjoyed eating anything I wanted to eat
and as much as I wanted to eat.
- Hey.
- It's okay. You can come out.
- That roof scene was one of the hardest days
of filming for me.
I learned so much that day about Joe
as this constant evolution of understanding Joe.
We did that take 14 times.
And after the fourth take, I think,
everybody was ready to kind of move on.
I think they had it,
but I just kept on wanting to go.
- (crying) Bad things, they happen,
and we do bad things also.
- My heart was breaking for Joe in between those takes.
I was sobbing, and crying,
and I just felt so sad and bad for Joe.
And it's so heartbreaking when he's like,
"I don't know if I'm creating a bad memory
for you in realtime or we're connecting."
And just for him to have that kind of awareness
is so sad in that moment.
I still think about that scene.
I think I got one more take in me.
- What if I wasn't ready
to be making those kinds of decisions?
- He asked that question, I think
the audience asked the whole time through like,
"Why doesn't Joe talk about this?"
And that question, he musters the courage to ask her.
And to see the courage he has while doing that,
but also the fear and the pent up,
just not knowing how to say these things
that are really formulating into words for the first time.
It was really sacred and magical that day.
- What if I was too young?
- Wow...
- That day was so, you could hear a pin drop on the carpet.
I just remember Todd...
I don't even know if I wanna share the notes
that he gives me 'cause they're so...
I just wanna keep that to myself,
but I couldn't have done this without Todd
guiding me the whole way through.
(audience cheering)
- [Speaker] Madison Diane. (speakers crosstalk)
- Then it kind of leads to that moment
where he's watching his kids graduate.
Joe seeing what he's worked so hard for in his life
to give his kids this life that he hasn't experienced.
And it wasn't tears of sadness,
it was just tears of joy.
That's Joe just finally being able to like breathe.
I remember my body even felt different.
It's a joyful, hopeful moment, especially for Joe.
And it just all came flooding through me.
(audience cheering)
Now that I've broken down Joe Yoo,
go watch "May December," only on Netflix.