Michelle Williams covers the January issue of Elle Magazine, just proving to me that she’s really going to do a big Oscar campaign this season. Michelle has a supporting role in Manchester by the Sea, and many believe she’s one of the leading contenders for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, alongside Naomie Harris (for Moonlight) and Viola Davis (for Fences). I keep hoping that Viola’s Oscar won’t be snatched away by another actress, and I’m really hoping that Michelle isn’t that actress. People say she’s great in Manchester, and the film is already “the film to beat” for many of the big awards, despite Casey Affleck’s problematic history. Back to Michelle… she really wants the nomination, if not the award. She’s cool with doing a ton of magazine interviews to promote the film and her potential nominations. Which is fine with me too – I like to see her playing the game. Here are some highlights from her Elle interview:
How the tabloid onslaught made it impossible to experience an authentic life: “If you feel like people are watching you, it’s impossible to have an authentic experience of being alive. There’s a performative aspect and a guardedness, and that’s just death. I don’t know how to live like that, and I don’t know how to give a life to my child like that.”
On how she’s naturally open but learned to set boundaries for herself: “It’s not naturally my inclination to be a boundary draw-er. I’m like, ‘Open up all the doors and the windows and let everybody in.’ That’s the aim of my work, too.” But this isn’t acting. “It’s been a really, really long time since I’ve been in an interview. But I have better boundaries now. I feel less susceptible to emotional wreck-diving to come up with explanations for everything.”
On the inspiration that drove her performance in Manchester by the Sea: “Everybody talks about the silences in movies and how interesting they are but it’s a lot easier than connecting beat to beat, line to line, inside of a scene in real time in front of a thousand people. But when I went to make [Manchester by the Sea], I felt a little bit more freedom, more access inside of myself.”
I was trying to remember when she last did a ton of press… she’s obviously given interviews for various stage and film projects over the past few years, but it has been a good three years or so since she’s done a big campaign and promotional tour. As for the rest of it… I always get the feeling that Michelle would be an annoying friend, you know? She’s the friend who you couldn’t tease (she would cry) or watch trash TV with (she probably doesn’t own a TV) or go out for a drink for a birthday celebration (she has to stay in and read poetry). It’s interesting that she talks about the “performative aspect” of living a public life, because I always get the feeling that she’s doing exactly that in interviews, that what she’s presenting to us is her performance of The Widow Ledger, you know?
Photos courtesy of Terry Tsiolis for Elle Magazine.
“her performance of The Widow Ledger”
I agree in a way, I think she definitely plays the role people give her as the widow of her daughters father. I feel she is seen through a lens that has a Ledger filter and maybe she knows she can’t get around it so she works through it, but still uses it to be remembered or as a ‘trait’ to stand on.
She seems to present herself in a state of perpetual melancholia.
Yes, you put words to my thoughts.
Not to mention she seems to be playing different versions of the same sad sack character. That commercial for Manchester by the Sea where she’s crying was a turn off for me. Enough of that from her. Do a comedy. LOL
Maybe that’s the way she’s permanently portrayed, which is something she may have no control over…?
@Radley, that’s exactly how I feel. She is great at playing the vulnerable sad woman but it’s always what she plays.
I have loved her look for years. I also really admire her talent and her choices for her career.
I don’t think I agree. In fact, it kinda bugs me that whenever she says something remotely emotional or maybe gets photographed wearing something not so flattering or with a bad haircut, everyone immediately goes “omg it’s so obvious she has never recovered from Heath’s death!”
Yep.
Yep Yep.
Yep Yep Yep.
I don’t think she projects or uses that, either, I think that’s what’s projected *onto* her by others. She just acts, raises her daughter, and does occasional press (as part of her job). She seems pretty low key and private.
Yep. Speaking of the haircut, I love it. She is one a few in Hollywood who has the face to pull off such short hair. They all seem to need fake boobs and extensions in their hair, while she looks very old Hollywood, simple and classic.
She’s one of those rare people who can pull off the iltra platinum pixie. She’s stunning.
Right on.
I think she has handled everything that has been thrown her way with class. She certainly deserves a nomination for Manchester, the win? I can’t comment as I have not seen Fences, yet.
Definitely deserves a nomination. She goes to a place that is so raw, so painful, so dark.
I think she is pretty and a good actress. But ten years from now, Heath will still be attached to any story or comments about her. She should be defined by her merits as an actress, not the man she loved and lost.
Agree 100 percent. And yes it’s a terrible story but she’s sadly not the only young widowed mother. I’m sure she doesn’t want to be defined by her relationship w him alone. I wonder if she were with a non-famous guy (or at least not Heath and his dramatic legacy) it would play such a big part of her press narrative?
I would say”no.” For example – Keanu Reeves lost a daughter and his daughter’s mother (his ex gf, I believe) died. Patton Oswald’s wife just died and that’s barely mentioned. Heck, even Liam Neeson’s wife is rarely ever mentioned anymore – and she was famous.
That said – I think it’s great that the press respects their privacy. I hate that Michelle Williams is forced to be seen through a Heath Ledger lens. She should be able to mention him when she wants to – and not discuss him as she pleases too.
I became a fan with Dick, Me without you, Land of Plenty or The United States of Leland to name a few, so pre Ledger. I fail to see how the way she presents herself to the press nowadays is so dramatically different from those years and should warrant her this pejorative “performing widow ” .
She’s never been the bubbly, ultra permanently peppy type, a plus for me.
I get the same kind of impression from Michelle, but then again her BFF is the very outgoing Busy Phillips, so perhaps she’S more willing to be counterbalanced.
Michelle Williams has never been my cup of tea, but she seems like a decent person. I would have rathered that Manchester By The Sea wasn’t a thing, but that’s not on her. Though Viola still has the Oscar locked up.
I think the way she speaks is a bit performative. Not in what she says, but rather in how she says it. So, in that sense, yeah, I’d find her annoying if she were my friend. Sometimes it seems like she’s going for some kind of delicate flower thing which is cute on an early 20 something, except she’s 36.
The figure skater Ekaterina Gordeeva lost her husband when she was 24 and despite her fragile appearance she never really came across the same way Michelle Williams does. So maybe that’s why Williams comes across as kind of annoying to me. Gordeeva’s loss is the ultimate barometer of intense romantic love lost to me.
Maybe the contrast between Williams being in her underwear at times on magazine covers while talking about loss comes across as funnily jarring to me though.
To be fair, I think her loss is real and not contrived at all. I just find the persona itself kind of irritating. In private, she may be a completely different person.
she’s on 24/7 regardless of an audience.
like her but ffs she is an actor in every sense of the word. she lives in a city where it is near impossible to experience true solitude. in a profession that demands an audience.
her authentic life is being an actor -playing a part for an audience.
was she frustrated she lost control of the narrative during the tabloid onslaught? sure.
did she not ask for the roll? absolutely.
didn’t notice she up and moved to Wyoming for that authentic audience-less life for herself or her daughter though.
her words: DEATH!
🙄
‘I always get the feeling that Michelle would be an annoying friend, you know?’
Her seemingly very strong relationship with Busy Phillips would suggest otherwise.
There’s also the strong possibility Busy Phillips is also annoying as well so perfect match.
Wow, doesn’t she look amazing in that sequined blouse photo! Great shot. 🙂