Michelle Williams ‘did not expect to still be dating at 36 with an 11-year-old’

Michelle Williams wears dress by Michael Kors, photographed by Ryan McGinley for PORTER.

Michelle Williams covers the new issue of Porter Magazine to promote her supporting role in Manchester By the Sea. Most critics believe that Michelle is going to make all of the Best Supporting Actress shortlists, even if those same critics believe that Viola Davis has an actual lock on this year’s Supporting Actress Oscar. But still, Michelle’s going to promote the film and do some Oscar campaigning, even if Viola is a sure thing. And how does Michelle consistently campaign for her Oscar nominations? Yeah. She talks about Heath Ledger. Some highlights from Porter:

Her dating life post-Heath Ledger: “Talk about a learning process. I think, God, what would I say about it? I feel really sensitive about it and certainly did not expect to still be dating at 36 with an 11-year-old. This is not what I imagined. I’m like a cat, I’m a very domestic creature. I just want to stay home and take care of people. But I’m also happy with myself and just because I might have a desire to be with someone…that won’t lead me to marry the wrong person.”

Advice from her BFF Busy Phillips: “My friend Busy and her husband Marc [Silverstein] said, ‘Michelle, you’re in like a blackout zone, everybody is now partnered up and you have to wait for people to start getting divorced.’ Oh my f–king God. Are you kidding me? I’m just sitting around and waiting for marriages to crumble? Oh wow! No!”

Seeing Matilda grow up without a father: “In all honesty, for pretty much everything else, I feel like I’m a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you’ve been. In pretty much all senses but one, I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not having her dad. You know, that’s just something that doesn’t…I mean, it just won’t ever be right.”

[From Porter via E! News]

I’ve complained about this over the years, because every time Michelle gives an interview about her personal life, she acts like she hasn’t been in any serious relationships since Heath died. And that’s just not the case. She’s had a series of relationships, several of which I would consider “serious,” in that the boyfriends seem to spend time with her daughter, and Michelle and the guy have moved in together (or come close to it) and they’ve been together for a year or two. In this interview, she speaks as if she’s still being set up on terrible blind dates, when the reality is that she’s reportedly been with Jonathan Safran Foer all year? And what’s funny about that if Foer and Williams allegedly got together once his marriage crumbled! So… yeah. Ha. Her friends are sort of right.

Michelle Williams wears sweater and shorts by Rosetta Getty, and sunglasses by Kate Young for Tura, photographed by Ryan McGinley for PORTER.

Photos courtesy of Ryan McGinley/Porter Magazine.

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45 Responses to “Michelle Williams ‘did not expect to still be dating at 36 with an 11-year-old’”

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  1. Tila says:

    One of the most overrated actresses out there.

    • ravensdaughter says:

      Exactly. I don’t get the attraction that Hollywood has to her.

    • amilu says:

      I’ve thought this since Dawson’s Creek.

    • susiecue says:

      I do think she’s a good actress, but I find her unbearably twee IRL. Cool points for being BFFs with Busy Phillips though, who I would love to hang out with.

    • Greentea says:

      She ruined Suite Francaise for me. Very, very, very wooden and couldn’t emote. Good Brit accent though. Blue Valentine also terrible for me. Indie for indie’s sake movie, if that makes any sense. I find her awkward on screen in general and her films don’t hold much appeal for me.

    • kimbers says:

      YAS! She played Glenda the same way she played Marilyn! She is so over rated bc she refrains from speaking in the industry, so people assume she’s something more than she is.

  2. Lightpurple says:

    Heartbreaking performance in Manchester, so much pain. I would be surprised if she doesn’t get a nomination. Same with Naomie Harris. But I do think the trophy will go to Viola.

    • Rhiley says:

      Is the movie worth seeing in the theater? Part of me kind of wants to see it, but then part of wonders if all the best scenes aren’ t already in the trailer and the movie drags.

      • Lightpurple says:

        It is worth seeing. It is slow going in parts but the acting is great, even small parts from Kyle Chandler, Gretchen Mol, and Matthew Broaderick. And Lukas Hedges brings so much life and humor to every scene he is in.

      • Nik says:

        @ Rhiley

        I wasn’t a huge fan of it. If sad family dramas are your taste then you might like it more than me but I walked away feeling lukewarm to everything. Not bad but nothing to warrant all the praise it’s got. Michelle is quite good but she’s only has a limited amount of screen time though.

        Moonlight, Arrival and the Edge of 17 are some of the better movies playing now.

      • Rhiley says:

        Edge of 17 does look good. I have never liked any of Michelle Williams movies so I will probably watch this one on iTunes when it comes. I think the last Michelle Williams movie I saw was Blue Valentine and I hated it. I didn’t bother with My Week With Marilyn even though my mom wanted to see it really badly.

    • Kate says:

      Naomie’s campaign is really picking up, and Moonlight is looking like a pretty strong bet Best Picture and Director which will help. Fences on the other hand is sounding like it’s just a good to adequate version of play.

      I think it might be Naomie’s year. It should be, her performance is one of the best female support performances in a long time.

  3. N says:

    It was a bit weird how she acted like a widow when he died. Heath was with Gemma ward before he died. And michelle dated several men while he was still alive. They were never married btw.

    • Lucy says:

      Well, she did have a daughter with him.

    • k47745 says:

      If the other parent of your child(ren) dies, it affects you deeply and for the rest of your life.

      What a shitty comment. 🙁

      • N says:

        I didn’t say anything about any children.?.? Obviously that will affect someone sheesh
        Wtf at people reading into things that aren’t there..

    • teacakes says:

      this is a really shitty comment, considering they’d split up what, less than six months before he died, they had a child, and she admitted to hoping they’d get back together further down the line.

    • k47745 says:

      If by “acting like a widow” you mean “destroyed to her core by having her daughter’s father die under horrible circumstances,” then I gotta say, yeah.
      She acted like a ‘widow.’

      Those 3 are tied together forever. No split or death changes that.

      I mean no disrespect, but my guess is you’re young or not a parent. 😉 It makes perfect sense to me because it hits close to home. Divorce, splits, dating, moving….that changes zilch when it comes to being the mother of his child grieving his death.

    • Shura says:

      To say he was “with” Gemma Ward isn’t quite accurate. They shared mutual friends and dated a bit when he went back to Australia over the Christmas holiday. As for Terry Gilliam, he’s a hateful beast. Michelle played her last “clean your act up or it’s over” card and it very sadly didn’t work. What’s worse, a friend who got to know one of Heath’s friends insists Heath intended to try rehab after finishing Gilliam’s film, and hoped to then repair his relationship with Michelle. When you consider that, it’s no wonder she’s had a hard time letting go.

    • kimbers says:

      Agree with u N

      She definitely played a victim after his death, like she played a victim after her break up with Jason what’s his name from how i met ur mother. She has always dated self destructive men, so why ignore that fact?

  4. Samtha says:

    Heath is what the interviewers still ask her about, and she answers the questions. If it only comes up when she’s promoting something…well, that’s because she really only does interviews when she’s promoting something, right?

    • smcollins says:

      Stop being so logical, there’s no room for that here 😉
      But, seriously, they may not have been married but they were together for a long time and shared a child. I think their relationship wasn’t completely done, just taking time apart. I think she was hoping they would work things out so they could be a family again, but sadly he died before that could happen. I think it’s always been unresolved for her, and left a certain hole in her life. I feel for her. I also think she’s a very talented actress, not over rated at all.

      • Lalu says:

        This is how I see it too. They had a child together. That goes beyond being married or still being together when he died. And I also get that there might have been the hopes they would eventually be a family again.
        Perhaps I am projecting. I just know I would never get over the death of the father of my son. And even if we split prior and we were both with someone else… It would be a great loss for me and my son.

      • N says:

        They actually had major problems according to the director of his last movie made. He said heath wasn’t allowed to see his child because michelle wouldnt let him and there was a lot of bad blood between them. It’s all there if you Google. They had a lot of issues and it all sort of got whitewashed after his death.

      • L says:

        Yeah and that director also tried to blame Michelle for Heath’s death and had the audacity to basically call her, barely a few months after heath’s death, a famewhore (while he was going to a magazine) who was too focused on her career, and Heath was too pure for that🙄. Sorry, but using Terry Gilliam to try and back up your views of what happened in their relationship angers me a bit.

    • Lucy says:

      ^this right here.

      • msd says:

        Oh jeez, someone quoting Terry Gilliam’s opinion. He’s a well known misogynist. He was really horrible about Michelle, and horrible about Amber Heard when she and Johnny Depp split too.

  5. Cool Character says:

    I get it.

    Those relationships all ended.

    It must suck to not be living the complete life you imagined.

  6. JellyBeans says:

    Oooo! I love the glasses!!

  7. Beckysuz says:

    She has the most gorgeous skin. It’s just luminous

  8. perplexed says:

    I think her grief is real (why wouldn’t it be?), but she’s always seemed somewhat like Cameron Diaz or Winona Ryder in terms of her dating life. Like, wow, all of these ladies really know how to snag boyfriends and quickly (I know it’s because they’re beautiful, but that ability is still fascinating to me).

    The only way I see the media not asking questions about Heath is if she gets remarried, but I can’t tell if she’s someone who’s interested in that. Monogamous relationships yes, but marriage? Who knows what her position on that actually is. She says she didn’t imagine herself at 36 still dating, but I get the impression she prefers her life like that (probably because she’s an actress?).

    I do find it a little startling when the media asks Naomi Watts about Heath, but it does seem like he loved his fair share of women, I guess.

    • Kate says:

      Nicole Kidman has been married to Keith Urban for a decade and the press still asks her about Tom Cruise. Woman always defined by the men they are with …… sigh.

      • Lala says:

        I think it’s more that high profile celebrity couples are always defined by the relationship even after they break up. The one who’s more defined by it is the one who’s less famous, whether man or woman. Guy Ritchie is probably always associated with Madonna. Russell Brand is continually referred to as “Katy Perry’s ex.” And speaking of KP, Orlando Bloom used to be famous in his own right but these days seems to be more known for dating her. The media just picks whatever angle they think will get the most views or clicks. Because Heath died tragically, he’s extra catnip for the media – they will bring him up in association with anyone he even briefly dated.

  9. Lucy says:

    I saw My Week With Marilyn again on the weekend, and I’m still so in awe about her and her performance.

  10. Bex says:

    She looks amazing in that cover shot. I want that blue and gold top!

    I can’t really blame her for talking about Heath in every interview. She only gives about two a year, and it’s the interviewer who brings it up. If she refused to answer a story would probably be constructed around her being ‘uncommunicative’ or ‘surly’ or whatever.

  11. MadHatter says:

    Newsflash hun nobody does!

  12. Hola says:

    I think she had very obvious eye surgery after dawsons creek… am i alone on this?
    Maybe im wrong

  13. Ms. Turtle says:

    I saw Manchester by the Sea last week and she is so wonderful on screen. When she’s on screen I can’t look anywhere else. She’s my major girl crush, along with Carey Mulligan.

  14. Dawnchild says:

    That’s a distractingly oddly meaty hand there by her face. She’s a good actor, I guess, but seems manipulative. She’s not a grieving widow, why bring it up always if not to evoke cheap sympathy? What does her single state have to do with her work? But I didn’t read the interview, so maybe should before I speak…

    • Lala says:

      Why do you assume she is the one who always brings it up? I’m sure she is asked and that it’s the #1 question journalists want to ask in every interview. The only way she could not “bring it up” is to say she refuses to talk about Heath, which I guess she could do, but maybe she doesn’t mind just being honest about her feelings. It doesn’t have to be either “refuse to speak about it” or “bringing it up to get cheap sympathy” — there’s a middle ground.

  15. bbb says:

    Heath, Busy, Matilda…

    Does she have anything else to say? Like ever? He’s been dead for 1000 years by now. People moved on. She needs a better PR angle to build her career on.

  16. kibbles says:

    I understand that she will always be tied to Heath because of Matilda. I do think that he was one of the loves of her life and that their relationship will always remain unresolved because of his death. That being said, it’s common knowledge that he had serious issues that he had to battle, they were apart when he died, and they were both quite young. I imagine that if he had lived, they’d be co-parenting today but not married or still loved up. The fact that we’ll never know creates this permanent “what if” factor of whether they were really meant for each other if Heath were still alive. She’s rich, is considered a serious actress, has a child, and seems content with her life. I don’t see why she needs to be coupled up or married until she meets the right person.

  17. Kate says:

    Dating’s different as a single parent (as in the only parent). What I would have called a serious relationship pre-child seemed a lot more casual with a child.

    Basically unless I was considering marrying or similarly committing to the person and having them be a father to my child, it wasn’t serious.

    Michelle doesn’t seem like she’s gotten too close to that with anyone, so I completely understand her ‘playing down’ her relationships.

  18. Debutante says:

    She wasn’t even with Heath Ledger as a couple when Heath died,,she left him BECAUSE of his drug problems.
    Wah wah, wah, hate to be mean but come on.,