Today is Charles Melton’s birthday. He’s 33 years old. He celebrated last night at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards where he accepted the award (announced a few weeks ago) for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in May December. Think about the magnitude of this achievement.
The best supporting actor contenders this award season include Robert De Niro and Robert Downey Jr, both of them in HUGE films – Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer. Mark Ruffalo and Paul Giamatti are also in the race. Charles went from Riverdale to keeping pace with his heroes, and while that’s probably such a mindf-ck for him, he deserves to be here. He is the spiritual centre of May December, the tender, earnest, and probably the most decent soul caught between two narcissists who just happened to be played by two Oscar winners, Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. In other words, he's been levelling up with legends both onscreen in the film and offscreen during this campaign.
Also… he’s getting better and better at his acceptance speeches. Prior to his win at the NYFCC, Charles gave emotional speeches at the Gothams and the Critics’ Choice Asian Awards. Last night, he was still grateful, still humble, but also funny, telling the crowd that:
"When I heard the news I was receiving this honor, I was in the sauna eating boiled eggs," Melton said, earning laughs and "whoas" from the audience of reporters and publicists. Starting in Hollywood, "I dedicated myself to learning about actors who mastered their craft. I would pour myself into every story and every interview I could get my hands on to discover what inspired these individuals. I saw one of those individuals here tonight, and that’s Paul Dano. I wanted to know their pursuits and passions, and what motivated them to fall in love with acting," Melton continued. "I was obsessed with so many of these heroes … and Paul Dano."
So we now know that Charles has a crush on Paul Dano – and Keanu Reeves. Because he was featured in W Magazine’s Best Performances issue and during his interview talked about what Keanu means to him. Charles really, really, really wants to meet Keanu. And I, personally, would really, really, really like Charles to meet Keanu, and for a photographer to be present when that happens so that we can all make that photo our screensaver.
