Michelle Williams won an award for her FX series Dying for Sex! AND she was there to accept it! Y’all know I have been dying (pun intended) for this to happen, finally. Michelle has given some powerful speeches when she felt she had a strong shot at winning, but even though this one took her by surprise, she delivered brief but heartfelt words at the Actor Awards on Sunday. Nodding to the fact that she started as a child actor, Michelle shared the cute story that at that young age she thought actors who played your family were your family, leading to big tears upon the end of filming. Which she segued to thanking her Dying for Sex cast and saying she’d never let them go as her family, while also thanking the woman-led creative team for being the “geniuses of the flying penises.” Excellent. And to cap it off, Michelle thanked her best friend Busy Philipps, a fitting end when winning an award for a show about the power of female friendship. After her win, Michelle paid tribute to another friend, her Dawson’s Creek costar James Van Der Beek, telling press backstage that she thinks about him “and his family constantly” since his untimely passing.
Michelle Williams is keeping her Dawson’s Creek costar James Van Der Beek at the forefront of her mind following his death.
Van Der Beek’s wife, Kimberly, announced his death after a journey with stage 3 colorectal cancer in an Instagram post on Feb. 11.
While attending the 2026 Actor Awards at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 1, Williams, 45, revealed how his death has impacted her.
Asked if Van Der Beek was on her mind as she collected an award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series for her role in FX’s Dying for Sex, Williams replied that she was “thinking about him and…his family constantly.”
Williams added to Entertainment Tonight, “I also just want to say it’s been such an amazing thing as James is a friend and a friend of the family to see the response in the wake of his passing.”
She continued: “I just really want to say thank you to each and every person who has contributed to sustaining their lives and their children’s lives. It’s an incredibly meaningful thing to witness.”
Williams was referencing a GoFundMe created to raise money for Van Der Beek’s family in the wake of his death, which raised over $1.3 million within 24 hours of being established. According to the description on the fundraising website, the appeal was to cover “the costs of James’s medical care and the extended fight against cancer,” which has left his family “out of funds.” As of March 2, the total raised stands at $2.75 million.
Williams appeared on the red carpet at the event alongside husband Thomas Kail, with whom she shares three children. She also has a daughter from a previous relationship with the late Heath Ledger.
The actress was 16 when she joined the cast of Dawson’s Creek as Jen Lindley, while Van Der Beek was 20 when he began starring as Dawson Leery in the coming-of-age series…
When the actor died at age 48, Kimberly shared a portrait of him standing outdoors on Instagram alongside a message about his final days.
“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” Kimberly wrote in the touching post on Feb. 11. “He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time.
“Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend, “ she concluded.
I admit, with the way Michelle thanked her cast, and given how recently James passed, and given that Dying for Sex deals head on with dying from cancer, I really thought Michelle was somehow gonna tie James into the end of her speech. Like acknowledging him as a big brother from her first TV family, to continue that metaphor. The more I thought about it, though, being more private tracks with Michelle’s m.o. After all, Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson said Michelle was the driving force behind the staged reading last September, the proceeds of which went to James, yet Michelle made no publicity of the fact that it was her idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s helped financially as well after his passing, just in a discreet way. Not to mention the so-to-speak “wealth” of lived experience Michelle can share with Kimberly Van Der Beek about parenting after tragedy. Oy, this post started so joyful…
photos credit: Christopher Polk/Shutterstock for The Actor Awards, Lisa O’Connor/Shutterstock for The Actor Awards, Getty Images
I love her. That is all. I am disappointed in Joshua Jackson though because he did not say anything about james passing. Oh well
Just because Joshua Jackson didn’t post online about it, doesn’t mean he isn’t grieving, or hasn’t reached out to JVDB’s family in private. Everyone grieves differently. Michelle Williams didn’t post online after his death either, and the comments she made after the SAG awards were the first time she spoke publicly about it, Or did I miss something?
Grief doesn’t need to be performed. Celebrities don’t have to comment publicly on anything, especially if it has personally effected them.
She’s so good and so GOOD.
She had to bring up Matilda without Heath as he died so young and there must really relate to the heartache of James ‘wife bringing up children on her own. Anna Maxwell Martin was separated from her husband of twenty years when he died of a massive heart attack. She has spoken movingly of grieving for him and helping their two daughters cope with grief and having certain people assume that she had no right to grieve because they had separated! ? They were still married, co parented wonderfully and had been together twenty years, why wouldn’t she grieve for his unexpected death?
Aubrey plaza too. And not everyone who separates divorces. Michael Douglas and Catherine zeta jones, Pink and Carey hart and Ben stiller and Christine Taylor are among those who reconciled after a separation.
And nice to see her sat with Kirsten Dunst for a Dick reunion. I love them both in that movie.
That was my thought too!