How Gracie Manipulates Everyone Around Her in May December (Not Just Joe)

WARNING! This article contains spoilers for May December (2023)!

It’s clear in May December that Gracie (Julianne Moore) manipulated Joe (Charles Melton) throughout their entire “relationship,” but she also had a controlling nature over everyone else around her. Inspired by the true story of Mary Kay Letourneau, May December highlights the fact that Gracie manipulated Joe into staying with her and believing that he was the one responsible for their initial “romance,” despite the fact that he was only a 13-year-old child and she was a 36-year-old woman. When he confronts her about this approximately 23 years later, shortly before May December‘s ending, she continues to manipulate him by blaming Joe and insisting that he somehow seduced her.

Charles Melton’s Joe isn’t the only character in May December who Gracie manipulates, however. Throughout the Netflix-streaming 2023 film, it’s revealed how Gracie controls everyone in her life, but she consistently denies any such intent. Particularly, her interactions with her daughters, her son Georgie (Cory Michael Smith), and Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth Berry reveal how Gracie feigns naivety in order to get away with wrongdoing, to control people’s actions, and to manipulate others’ perception of her.

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Gracie Manipulates Her Daughters By Body-Shaming Them

When Mary (Elizabeth Yu) is trying on dresses for her upcoming high school graduation, she finds one that she really loves and excitedly shows to Elizabeth and Gracie. Her mother, Gracie, then backhandedly tells Mary that she is “so brave” for wearing a sleeveless dress. These comments immediately change Mary’s demeanor, as her smile fades and she becomes uncomfortable. She comes up with an excuse for why she no longer wants the dress, and after subsequently returning with a sleeved dress that her mother praises, Mary ultimately chooses the latter.

By giving this backhanded compliment, Gracie implies that Mary’s body is something she should feel ashamed of, making her “brave” for feeling confident enough to show her arms. This comment makes Mary feel insecure and manipulates her into getting a dress Gracie wants her to get. By disguising this insult as a compliment, Gracie is able to hide her malicious intent behind the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps Mary thinks her mother really is trying to compliment her, when, in reality, she is trying to shame Mary into buying a dress with sleeves.

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This is not the only time when Gracie body-shames her daughters and disguises the insults as compliments. Her oldest daughter, Honor (Piper Curda), laments that Gracie got her a scale as a high school graduation present. Gracie insists that her mother also gave her a scale when she graduated from high school, so it’s a family tradition. The disguise of her intentions fades away when she finally tells Honor to try going through life without a scale and to see how that goes.

This is an even more blatant act of body-shaming than the previous one. A scale can be an insulting gift which could make someone feel insecure about their body. When Honor sees through Gracie’s lie that the scale was supposed to be a gift and not an insult, Gracie drops the act. By making a comment about going through life without a scale, she admits that she thinks Honor should have a scale or else she could become overweight. These instances show how Gracie uses backhanded compliments and veiled insults to manipulate her daughters.

Gracie Manipulated Her Son Into Becoming Just Like Her

When Elizabeth meets Gracie’s son from her first marriage, Georgie, he elicits sympathy from Elizabeth by describing how Gracie’s infidelity and the ensuing scandal ruined his life. This falls in line with what Gracie’s neighbor and lawyer, Morris, has to say about Georgie: that he’s a sensitive boy who was hurt by the relationship between Gracie and Joe. Instances toward the end of the film raise questions about how true this is, however.

Later, Georgie tells Elizabeth that Gracie was sexually abused as a child by her older brothers, seemingly explaining her reasons for beginning a predatory relationship with Joe. In this conversation, Georgie seems to show his true colors to Elizabeth. He switches from being a sensitive boy into a manipulator, threatening to speak poorly about Elizabeth’s movie to the press unless she gives him a role as music supervisor for the film.

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Another twist comes when, towards the end of the film, Gracie tells Elizabeth that she speaks to Georgie every day. She says this is how she discovered that he told Elizabeth about Gracie’s alleged childhood trauma, immediately contesting Georgie’s abuse claim and calling it a disgusting lie. At this point, it’s unclear who’s telling the truth. May December leaves it ambiguous whether Georgie actually feels bitterness towards his mother, as he may have lied to Elizabeth to manipulate her into feeling sympathy for him. Furthermore, it’s not clear whether Gracie actually talks to Georgie every day or not.

Either way, it’s clear that Gracie’s actions have shaped her son into becoming who he is, whether he’s a resentful boy who felt betrayed by his mother’s infidelity with Joe, a manipulator who learned how to control others from his mother, or some combination of the two. It may be more than a coincidence that Gracie and Georgie have such similar names, with the mother and son having far more in common than the beginning of May December suggested.

Gracie Manipulated Elizabeth By Playing Dumb

Elizabeth called Gracie naive for believing all of her family members would be able to get along at Mary and Charlie’s graduation, but rather than denying this, Gracie agreed and elaborated that she’s “always been” naive. This aligns with what Morris had to say about her, too. He claims that Gracie didn’t seem aware that her relationship with Joe was illegal and that she could go to jail for it. Gracie’s actions, however, call into question how naive she really is.

Her reveal towards the end of the film that she speaks to Georgie every day suggests that Gracie had more control over Elizabeth’s perception of events than she let on. Also, it was Gracie’s idea for Joe to drive Elizabeth home, which ultimately led to them becoming intimate. Her previously mentioned interactions with her daughters and with Joe clearly show just how manipulative Gracie is, suggesting that her naivety is a facade to conceal this.

The final conversation between Elizabeth and Gracie seems to disturb Portman’s character so much because it’s a jarring moment when Gracie drops the facade. She reveals how much she knows about Elizabeth and Georgie’s conversations, perhaps about Joe and Elizabeth’s intimate encounter, and likely even more. Maintaining her mask of naivety is a way for Gracie to manipulate everyone in her life and throughout May December.