May December Star Charles Melton Is So Much More Than 'A Guy From Riverdale'
As of publication, Michelle Williams is understood by many as one of the most gifted actors working today. She has two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, has been nominated for a Tony Award, and boasts a whopping five Academy Award nominations. Her breakthrough performance in "Brokeback Mountain" in 2005 earned her first Oscar nomination, and she's been one of the most highly sought-after performers ever since. But "Brokeback Mountain" was not Williams' first role, nor was she some actor plucked from obscurity and tossed into prestige cinema. For six seasons, Williams starred as Jen Lindley on "Dawson's Creek," one of the most formative teen dramas in television history.
And yet when she nabbed the role of Alma Beers del Mar in "Brokeback Mountain," the general conversation wasn't fixated on her years as a television teen star, nor were people dismissing her casting due to previous appearances in teen films like "But I'm a Cheerleader" or "Dick" or even "Halloween H20." Perhaps it's because "Dawson's Creek" was a serious teen show or because social media didn't exist (so unless someone was actively watching the show, it was a bit of an out-of-sight/out-of-mind situation), but Michelle Williams was able to avoid the teen idol stain that actors like Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Selena Gomez, and Zac Efron are still shaking off despite being over a decade out from the teen entertainment machine.
Enter: Charles Melton, the breakout star of "May December" who has been leading the pack in the Best Supporting Actor race as awards season kicks up. He not only holds his own on-screen against Academy Award winners Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore but is undoubtedly delivering one of the most mesmerizing performances of 2023. And yet, the dominant conversation is how "shocked" people are that someone best known for playing Reggie Mantle on "Riverdale" is a great actor.
Riverdale is not shorthand for 'bad'
For the better part of the last decade, "Riverdale" has become a go-to punching bag. People whose knowledge is nothing more than an out-of-context clip posted to Twitter love to loudly proclaim how "bad" the show is, and the line "looks like a CW show" has become a common phrase in critical spaces to discredit anything with a similar aesthetic or tone. Despite the fact "Riverdale" is essentially "Twin Peaks" for Gen-Z teens, our culture overwhelmingly operates under the conclusion that "Riverdale" is trash and therefore anything or anyone associated with the show is collateral damage. This is not a defense of "Riverdale" article (I've already written that), but it's important to acknowledge that the negative fervor that surrounds the show has a direct correlation to the way Charles Melton's performance has been digested.
Bobbi Miller of "The Afternoon Special" explained it perfectly on Twitter by writing, "Now I can acknowledge a show like 'Riverdale' was deeply unserious at times, [but] I fear that the conversation around it and the fact that it had good actors in it could be rooted in the belief that comedies/teen shows as inherently lesser." And she's right. But the reality is that the cast of "Riverdale" are all immensely talented. Being able to deliver lines like "Do you know whose blood this is, Mommy?" or respond with "That means you haven't known the triumphs and defeats, the epic highs and lows of football" after someone confesses to dropping out of school in the fourth grade to run drugs to help their Nana takes skill. Unlike "May December," every episode of "Riverdale" is legitimate camp, and pulling that off for 137 episodes is ridiculously impressive. The fact so many people/haters don't realize every single person working on that show is in on the joke speaks to how successful the show was at achieving its goal.
Charles Melton is a star (like the sun)
Melton's career does extend beyond the Archie-verse of "Riverdale," popping up in films like "Bad Boys for Life," "Heart of Champions," and "Secret Headquarters." But in 2019, Melton became the first Korean-American and Asian-American actor to lead a teen romance film from a major Hollywood studio in "The Sun is Also a Star." Admittedly, the film leaves much to be desired, but Melton and co-star Yara Shahidi ("Black-ish," "Grown-ish," "Peter Pan & Wendy") are undeniably fantastic, and their commanding performances save what is ultimately a hodgepodge of good intentions, clunky pacing, an unnecessary epilogue, and some questionable colorism in the casting.
It's so obvious that Shahidi and Melton have "it." That palpable, can't-take-your-eyes-them magnetism that pulls you in and makes you forget for a second that this is a movie where two people are brought together because the girl had "deus ex machina" literally written on the back of her jacket. Had the film been better received, it would not have been shocking to see Melton enjoy a career as a go-to rom-com leading man. He's clever, he's funny, he's charming, and he has arresting good looks that have "movie star" plastered all over his perfectly chiseled jaw. But there's a sincerity to his performance in this film that's absent from the deliciously cursed insanity of "Riverdale," proving that there's always been more to him than Reggie Mantle.
That tenderness is well displayed in "May December," but it's not like Melton suddenly became capable of delivering visible vulnerability. "The Sun is Also a Star" is an excellent showcase of his talent, but because it was a teen rom-com, it went largely ignored.
The best villain of Poker Face
Arguably the biggest shame, however, is how many people missed his brilliant turn on "Poker Face" in the episode "The Future of the Sport," playing the role that /Film writer Michael Boyle named "the smartest psycho of season 1." His character is downright despicable, the polar opposite of the roles he's known for playing. In the same way he's being praised for holding his own alongside Portman and Moore in "May December," he should certainly be praised for matching the prowess of both beloved character actor Tim Blake Nelson and the incomparable Natasha Lyonne.
Ironically, if you search "Charles Melton Poker Face" on Twitter, the performance is hotly debated. Some fans mark it as the moment they realized he was a brilliant actor, while others have called it "atrocious." It's impossible to tell how much of that negative response is rollover "Riverdale" hate or struggling with the fact his character is intentionally unlikable, but I'm of the opinion that he's absolutely fantastic. Combine this with his hilarious turn on "History of the World Part II" and you'll see that Melton has been proving himself as a star on the rise for years. It's not his fault that people haven't been paying attention.
"May December" is now available on Netflix.