Kristoffer Borgli, the director of the new Zendaya and Robert Pattinson movie, “The Drama,” is facing backlash for justifying dating a teenager in a resurfaced essay.
Borgli wrote about the relationship with the 16-year-old girl in 2012 for the Norwegian magazine “Dagens Naeringsliv.” The article was translated to English by The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday and is now going viral on Reddit.
In the article, the then-27-year-old said he pursued a romance with a girl ten years his junior because he needed “recalibrate my moral compass.” (The age of consent in Norway is 16).
“The few friends I confided in about my situation responded that it was not ‘within bounds,’” Borgli said.
The Norwegian filmmaker, now 40, described once laying in bed next to the blond high school student, writing that he didn’t want to “define her by her age” and initially planned to never see her again.
“But you can’t choose what the heart wants,” he added.
Borgli defended the relationship, which he called an “emotional dilemma,” by citing the 1979 Woody Allen movie “Manhattan” about a couple who have a 25-year age difference.
In real life, Allen married his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn when she was 27 and he was 62 in 1997.
Borgli wrote, “Why shouldn’t my relationship – with a considerably smaller age difference – in 2012 be ‘within bounds’? I chose to listen to Woody over my friends.”
He said that his and the teen’s romance involved eating breakfast while watching Allen’s movies, going to restaurants and bars where they didn’t check IDs and drinking her parents’ wine.
They spent one summer in the teen’s parents’ apartment, which he described as “the best and most exotic summer I’ve ever had.”
“Her parents came home unexpectedly early from vacation, and I had to climb out the window (first floor),” Bogli recalled, adding that after summer ended, their “weeklong weekends became ordinary weekdays.”
Reddit users slammed Borgli for his controversial past relationship.
“Ooooof that’s disappointing. Had no idea about this,” one fan wrote.
“What a f—ing creep,” another fan said. “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 person said Borgli is “giving Woody Allen vibes.”
“He’s a predator creep that deserves to be exposed,” someone else wrote.
Another fan declared that after reading the essay, they won’t watch “The Drama,” which comes out in theaters on Friday, April 3.
“I’m usually pretty good at separating art and artist usually but preying on vastly underage girls is where I draw a line,” the same fan added.
Page Six has reached out to Borgli’s rep and A24, who produced “The Drama.”
Borgli is best known for writing and directing the 2022 Norwegian film “Sick of Myself” and the 2023 American film “Dream Scenario.”
The latter movie stars Julianne Nicholson and Nicolas Cage, who was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance.
“The Drama,” his fourth directorial feature, is about a couple (played by Zendaya and Pattinson) who face a shocking revelation one day before their wedding.
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