Charles Melton got a matching tattoo with all of his“ May December ”kids: 'This is what's in my heart'

The actor's costar Elizabeth Yu said that getting the matching ink was "really special for me in this little mock family we had."

Charles Melton’s bond with his May December costars goes way beyond skin deep. 

In a new PEOPLE profile, the actor, who starred as teen-parent-turned-stuck-adult Joe Yoo, revealed he got a matching butterfly tattoo with all of his character’s teenage children — played by Gabriel Chung, Piper Curda, and Elizabeth Yu — while they were shooting the Todd Haynes-directed film together in Savannah. 

"I was super nervous, but then I was like, 'I already share my skin with these people, to a certain degree,’” Yu told the outlet of the tattoo, which was hand drawn by Melton. “So getting a tattoo was really special for me in this little mock family we had."

Melton explained that the fictional family’s decision to get matching ink was more of a personal decision than it was the cast's attempt at Method Acting.

“These are all things I would do naturally if I wasn't playing their dad,” he said. “I allowed that to really just inform some of the choices that I made. My goal isn't to be like, ‘Oh, I'm going to experience this so I can use it.’ No. It's, ‘I'm going to experience this because this is who I am, Charles. This is what's in my heart.’”

In addition to their shared tattoos, the outlet noted that Melton also looked out for his younger costars by recommending films for them to watch like The Matrix and Gladiator, as well as letting them all do laundry at his L.A. apartment too.

Melton previously told EW about his experience playing a “suburban father of three” in Oscar-nominated film and how gaining 40 pounds for the role helped to shape his character’s psyche.

"He's the guy to eat the second, third, fourth, fifth plate at the family friend's house in order to make them feel good about what they cooked or whatnot. He's eating the leftover cakes that Gracie doesn't sell,” he explained. “There's this fragility, but this overpowering quality that she has with Joe, where he's caretaking on so many different levels and very codependent, unhealthy levels where she is on this pedestal. It was conversations too that informed what Joe would feel like. Where does he find comfort?"

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Related content:

• Charles Melton says Riverdale was his acting school

• Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore make magic in May December

• How Todd Haynes' May December channeled Mary Kay Letourneau and classic female melodramas

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.