The Drama director Kristoffer Borgli is receiving backlash after an essay he wrote in 2012 justifying his relationship with a teenager has resurfaced on Reddit.
In a piece for Norwegian magazine Dagens Naeringsliv written in 2012, Borgli, 40, described his “exotic summer” dating a 16-year-old girl, which is the age of consent in Norway, when he was 10 years her senior, calling it a “May-December” relationship. (The term “May-December” refers to a romantic age difference that society disapproves of.)
“I met a girl ten years younger than me whom I liked very much — a girl who wasn’t old enough to vote — and I had to find something that could recalibrate my moral compass,” Borgli, who was 27 dated the teen, wrote in the essay, translated to English by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, March 26. “The few friends I confided in about my situation responded that it was not ‘within bounds.’ That confirmed that it was precisely a May-December romance.”
The director, whose latest film The Drama is set to hit theaters in April, recalled the evolution of his romance with the teen girl, including their mostly shut-in lifestyle.
“Beside me lay a blonde girl, a high school student enjoying the sporadic holidays in May,” Borgli remembered of their time in his apartment. “I chose to see her that way, to define her by her age, and I chose never to see her again.”
He confessed, “But you can’t choose what the heart wants.”
Borgli explained that in order to sort out his “emotional dilemma” he turned to Lost in Translation, which depicted a May-December romance with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson who were 53 and 18, respectively, while filming.
The filmmaker pointed to Woody Allen’s Manhattan as the biggest influence on whether he would continue to see this girl. He noted the 1979 film featured a 42-year-old man dating a 17-year-old girl, presented in a “positive way” that caused “no controversy.”
“Why shouldn’t my relationship — with a considerably smaller age difference — in 2012 be ‘within bounds’?” Borgli mused, revealing, “I chose to listen to Woody over my friends.”
Borgli shared that he was “fascinated” by the girl’s life, calling her “quite equal” to him as she was into piano, went to gallery openings and felt grown up.
“Suddenly we were together all the time — long days in my apartment, eggs and bacon with Woody Allen films for breakfast (she was also a fan), long walks with her parents’ dog, and late midweek evenings at restaurants and bars (where they didn’t check ID),” he confessed.
Borgli added that when the girl’s parents were away they drank their wine and read their books.
“That summer, I didn’t travel — for the first time as long as I can remember — but the time we spent together that summer in her parents’ apartment was nonetheless the best and most exotic summer I’ve ever had,” he wrote, but once her parents came home “unexpectedly early from vacation” and he had to exit the first floor window the romance came to a halt.
Borgli concluded, “The summer ended, and our weeklong weekends became ordinary weekdays. She was May; I was December.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Borgli and A24, the production company behind The Drama, for comment.
After THR translated the essay, it made its rounds on Reddit — and users were quick to slam the director for his past actions.
“Ooooof that’s disappointing. Had no idea about this,” one fan wrote on the forum.
“What a f***ing creep,” another fan replied. “So, instead of accepting that he’s a creep who should not act on his creepiness, he decided everyone else was wrong and fellow creeps’ 1970s fantasies should guide his life?”
A third user confessed they didn’t want to support Borgli’s new film ahead of its Friday, April 3, release.
“Well … guess I won’t be watching The Drama,” the person wrote on Reddit. “I’m usually pretty good at separating art and artist usually but preying on vastly underage girls is where I draw a line 🙅.”
