Allison Williams: An actor saw me eat a pastry and said ‘Don’t you want to be successful?’


I have only seen Allison Williams in two things: Peter Pan Live! from NBC and Get Out. With Peter Pan I thought she was in the range of meh to ok, but I knew that I would always be biased because I grew up adoring the 1950s version with Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard. In Get Out I thought she was well cast and did a great job, but I also never felt like she was the only actress who could have played that role. I think it’s been smart of Allison to continue with the horror genre, even if she doesn’t want to do them forever. Obviously the glaring hole missing in my viewership of her resume is Girls, and for that I blame Lena Dunham. When Girls came out I had an instinctual “no thank you” response to Ms. Dunham–I admit freely that there was no fair appraisal, just my spidey senses–so to be fair I forfeited 139 minutes of my life to watching Tiny Furniture. I will never get that time back. Between that experience and, you know, everything Lena Dunham has said and done since, I feel comfortable with my original assessment. So it’s with mixed feelings that I take in Allison’s comments on misogyny in Hollywood and how Lena helped her navigate it, that Allison shared recently at the Nantucket Film Festival:

Allison Williams is reflecting on being referred to as “on-set eye candy” during one of her first jobs in Hollywood.

The Girls alum, 35, appeared on the “Women Behind the Words” panel at the Nantucket Film Festival last weekend and recalled some of the comments she received during one of her earliest gigs in Hollywood. Appearing alongside filmmaker Nicole Holofcener and actress Michaela Watkins, Williams remembered working as a stand-in on the Martin Scorcese-directed pilot of the HBO crime drama Boardwalk Empire, which aired in 2010.

“There’s like 10 stories fighting their way from my brain to my mother that I’m trying to keep out of my mouth,” The Perfection actress told the crowd, as IndieWire reported. “I guess one of them, just very quickly… people just underestimate your humanity often as a young woman up and coming in our business. I was a stand-in for the pilot of Boardwalk Empire, which was the coolest experience ever, an amazing pilot. It was shot on film. It was incredible. But I was at craft services and a member of the crew came up and said, ‘So what do you do here? You’re the on-set eye candy?’”

Williams went on to say that the exchange was just another example of misogyny she has experienced throughout her career.

“An actor I later worked with who watched me eat a pastry and said, ‘Don’t you want to be successful?’ You know, those kinds of comments come up inevitably.”

Williams went on to credit her Girls creator and co-star Lena Dunham for serving as a voice of reason in the wake of intense criticism.

“For everything like that, there’s like Lena who just so gently, and at basically my same age, would usher me through this very unusual experience and was such an unbelievably talented writer and director, and was able to just get me to breathe and slow down and not do anything, and in doing that, just trust the material and trust that the talent is there,” she recalled.

[From Yahoo]

“Williams went on to credit her Girls creator and co-star Lena Dunham for serving as a voice of reason in the wake of intense criticism.” I’m sorry but that makes me laugh so hard. Of course Lena would make you feel better about criticism, she very easily forgave herself for being racist! Oy gevolt. Moving past Lena’s invocation here, the anecdotes on being called the on-set eye candy and what the actor said to Allison for eating a pastry–both of those are heinous, no woman should have to deal with that crap at work (or anywhere, really). Not to mention the fact that Allison Williams is skinny! Still, it’s hard for me to lose track of the fact that she had a lot of good fortune when she got started. She addresses it herself later in the article, saying “I’ve been disproportionately lucky and privileged, and I intend to spend the rest of my life working off that credit by giving back and paying it forward.” She’s saying everything she should be saying, so why am I rolling my eyes? This is what I find tough with the nepo-babies. They should be judged by their work, not their connections, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to forget the leg up they have. Anyway, I still think Kaiser nailed it when she called Allison Williams “millennial Goop.”

photos credit: Backgrid, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, B4859/Avalon

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26 Responses to “Allison Williams: An actor saw me eat a pastry and said ‘Don’t you want to be successful?’”

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  1. Pointillist says:

    At least she admits it now. Her husband is smokin’ and she has nice fashion.

  2. Izzy says:

    I love that dark blue and purple dress she’s wearing in that one photo. That’s all I’ve got.

  3. Lcr says:

    Oh man I LOVE her husband sigh…. He was great in The Last Kingdom on Netflix. Admittedly I haven’t seen him in anything else.

    • SquiddusMaximus says:

      I mean, to land Utred son of Utred… I have nothing but respect for her. Enjoy him, honey!
      Honestly, she seems pretty ok and self-aware, and especially aware of her leg-up in both life and the industry. She is painfully thin but has a fun sense of fashion. End notes.

      • Angelica Schuyler says:

        Wow. I had no idea she was married to MY imaginary husband! I take my hat off to her on just that alone. The quality of her acting is now irrelevant to me. She wins.

    • AngryJayne says:

      They were in Horizon Line together (a movie I’ve fallen asleep on so many times that I’ve given up on ever finishing).
      He was deeply sexy in The Last Kingdom, but ever since they’ve been together he *kinda* looks like a Ken Doll to me.
      It’s almost as if she’s been giving him the Elizabeth Hurley/Shane Warne treatment or something.

    • Margaret says:

      No wonder he looked familiar! He featured in my dreams for weeks when I was watching The Last Kingdom, but of course he had more hair. I haven’t seen him in anything else either. I’m afraid I’ve never heard of her, so in my mind she will be the woman who married Uhtred and I might have to take an interest in her now. 😀

  4. North of Boston says:

    She’s always been BEC-adjacent for me. I have no idea why, maybe it was the nepo-thing, since I don’t really remember seeing her in anything* way back but do have vague memories of her showing up at events with her dad and being featured in various “up and coming” or “people to watch” articles.

    I just checked her imdb page – it may have been College Musical that I first saw her in and wasn’t impressed.

    Also it was funny to see she starred as Kate Middleton in a Will and Kate thing (maybe a Funny or Die thing ) way back when

  5. Jenn says:

    I liked her a lot in M3GAN — in it, she’s a career-focused robotics/AI wizard (who neglects a human child). I think she’s found her niche in sinister horror satires.

    • tealily says:

      I thought she was great in that!

      • Deering24 says:

        She was awful in Peter Pan, but is really good at ruthless, hella-focused characters like her faux-sweet-girl in Get Out. It’s hard to get past the nepotism with her, though. Peter Pan would have sunk a less-well-connected actress’s career.

  6. HeyKay says:

    Something about her I have never liked.

  7. LeonsMomma says:

    A few years ago, she was the special guest at the Innocence Project Gala and was fantastic. Spoke with everyone, was engaged in the event. Didn’t think much of her before, but after that I came away feeling she had more depth than the average actress.

    The Innocence Project is about criminal justice reform as well as freeing unjustly incarcerated men and women. (Who mostly are Black.)
    Innocence Project: https://innocenceproject.org/about/
    Innocence Project New Orleans: https://ip-no.org/

    • Ana170 says:

      “More depth than the average actress “. What does that even mean? Is there something about women in Hollywood that makes them especially shallow?

  8. tealily says:

    I was a bit wary of Allison Williams when she first popped up, but I have to say I really like her! I think she’s doing good work and has the right attitude. I don’t get the griping. I think we all agree that Lena is a gigantic eyeroll of a person, but that doesn’t mean that everyone ever attached to her is A Problem.

  9. tidbit says:

    Yea, waited on her years ago when I worked in nyc restaurants. She refused to speak to me to give her order (whispered it to her guest to relay to me) or make eye contact.

    • Deering24 says:

      What is _with_ celebrities who don’t even want to make normal eye contact—or talk directly to civilians even to get things done? Are they afraid they’ll catch something or what? Or is it a reaction to always being on display and always fighting for attention? I’ve always found that a major red flag with some celebs—not that they should be bugged to death, but this really comes off as a snotty power play for them.

  10. Nic says:

    I agree Tiny Furniture was a bit too arty but Girls is fantastic. It’s so rare to see actual feminism onscreen,and it really shows that great performances come from great writing.

    • Lux says:

      I watched the entirety of Girls, except I had to skip Lena’s parts. Apart from being a very mediocre actress, her storylines were unbelievable. If she leaned in on the “girl who gets ignored because of her super hot friends” vibe, then it would be believable and compelling, but she was always trying to center herself, like the entire group revolved around her. Someone like her is not believably a “main character” in that circle of friends. Ditto the “men falling hard for her all over the place” storylines.

      • Aurora says:

        I really can’t imagine irl Adam Driver paying attention to someone as devoid of interest as Lena and her Girls’ alter ego. Zosia and Allison played the more convincing characters in that depressing shows.

  11. Tiffany:) says:

    I’ve known people that have worked with her, and they’ve all said what a kind and thoughtful person she is. She’s definitely a “good egg”. Seriously.

  12. satish more says:

    i couldnt agree more about Girls! i never watched it, just knew i would hate it (confirmed when i was forced to watch part of an episode at a friend’s house), and the fact that hbo hosted that nonsense for multiple seasons still boggles my mind. also, i have a theory that the emmy awards that the show won were “bought” in a futile attempt to convince audiences that the show was actually good.
    girls aside, this is an odd quote, because Williams is a VERY Skinny Minny. if this actually happened, i would think that her consistently slim physique would put aside any fears (which would be odd for someone to have anyway) that she was randomly about to gain 60 pounds. or maybe this person didnt know who she was when they made the comment? i dont know. but its odd. maybe Williams is trying to convince us that she doesnt starve herself…………….

  13. Tofuscrambler says:

    I like Allison. I appreciate Type-A-personality people and she seems genuine. She was good in Horizon Line and she and her partner look hot together. On her weight, she is soooo skinny; can’t imagine what she actually looks like in real life (camera puts on 20 pounds). When she just started out she looked maybe like Jennifer Lawrence (who looks kind of normal weight on screen but apparently is very thin in real life according to people who’ve seen her in real life).

  14. Aurora says:

    D*mned she’s married to Uthred! Honey, just grab that pastry and savour it!

  15. Molly says:

    Why do I see this being the guy that played Elijah in girls