“Film is a medium where you are asking people to relate to it personally, so there’s an amount of projection that’s necessary in the audience-performer relationship. But I didn’t want it to be just that. I wanted to risk how much an audience member could love the person I was making. I wanted to risk their love and earn their respect.”
-Michelle Williams, episode 325 of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
As we begin the new year, we’re returning to our conversation with brilliant actor Michelle Williams.
We walk through the making of Showing Up (6:05), Williams’ fifteen-year partnership with director Kelly Reichardt (8:10), and her upbringing in Montana and San Diego (10:42). Then, she describes coming of age on the set of Dawson’s Creek (14:50), her pivotal turn in Tracy Letts’ Killer Joe (20:00), and her path to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain (26:10).
On the back-half, we discuss a healing passage from Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost (29:37), Williams’ memorable performances in Blue Valentine (32:12) and My Week with Marilyn (37:47), and her final day shooting The Fabelmans (40:50). To close, she shares how she remains present as a mother (45:40), a formative Walt Whitman quote (47:22), and how—at age 42—she’s begun to create from “a place of peace.” (50:36).
For questions, comments, or to join our mailing list, reach me at sf@talkeasypod.com.
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Show-notes:
- Watch Michelle Williams in Showing Up.
- See her previous collaborations with director Kelly Reichardt: Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, and Certain Women.
- Watch more of Michelle’s work in Dawson’s Creek, Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, Fosse/Verdon, and The Fabelmans.
- Read Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost.
- For more conversations, hear our talks with Cate Blanchett, Ethan Hawke, Tom Hanks, Laura Dern, Questlove, Oscar Isaac, and Eddie Redmayne.
- Order your Talk Easy mug in cream and navy or our vinyl record with Fran Lebowitz.
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Original illustration by Krishna Shenoi. Reference image by Emily Soto.
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