Michelle Williams (actress)
Encyclopedia
Michelle Ingrid Williams (born September 9, 1980) is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley
on the WB
television teen drama
Dawson's Creek
, which she played from 1998 to 2003. Williams graduated to full-length features, including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
, her first mainstream film
, Dick
(1999), a comedy, and Prozac Nation
(2001).
From the 2000s Williams appeared primarily in dramatic, independent film
s for which she has received critical acclaim. A career highlight was 2005's controversial movie, Brokeback Mountain
, about a male homosexual relationship in the 1960s, which earned Williams a Best Supporting Actress
nomination from the Academy Awards
. She followed this with I'm Not There
(2007), Synecdoche, New York
(2008) and Martin Scorsese
's Shutter Island (2010). Williams's performance as a drifter in 2008's Wendy and Lucy
earned her critical praise and her work opposite Ryan Gosling
in Blue Valentine
(2010) received another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress
. She played Marilyn Monroe
in My Week with Marilyn
(2011) and will appear in 2013's 3-D Oz: The Great and Powerful
.
Williams had a high-profile relationship with actor and Brokeback Mountain co-star, Heath Ledger
. They had one child together before separating in 2007; daughter, Matilda Rose, born October 28, 2005.
, the daughter of Carla Ingrid (née Swenson), a homemaker
, and Larry Richard Williams, an author, and stock
and commodities trader. He was also a two-time Republican candidate
for the United States senate
. She is of part Norwegian
descent. Since a child, Williams kept to herself and was self-sufficient; as she has said, "I was really secretive with my parents and I think I sort of continued that... I found that by keeping to myself I got on OK. I don't know why." When Williams was nine, her family moved to San Diego, California
, and she became interested in acting at an early age.
s adventure film
Lassie
marked the actress's screen debut. Her role as the younger version of Sil, an alien-human who quickly grows up to become the monster character played by Natasha Henstridge
, in Species
opened Williams to a wider audience. Following this, Williams made appearances in the made-for-television movies My Son Is Innocent (1996), which saw her transition into more dramatic work, and Killing Mr. Griffin
, where she plays a member of Susan's (played by Amy Jo Johnson
) geek clique in 1997.
At age 15, faced with her parents's disapproval, she emancipated herself from them. This was in order for Williams to better pursue her acting career and not have to worry about child labor work laws
. After completing the ninth grade at the Upper School of Santa Fe Christian Schools
, in Solana Beach, California
, she left school because of severe bullying. Subsequently, Williams was home-tutored
by her mother and graduated early. After moving to Los Angeles, she quickly secured a prominent role in Dawson's Creek
. Reflecting on decisions as a teen, Williams commented that she thought she knew all there was needed to know since age 15. She also admitted in 2011 that she promptly chose to be emancipated after being influenced by celebrity headlines about young actors doing the same. In 1997, unhappy with the roles they were being offered, Williams and several other actor friends wrote a script entitled Blink. It was sold, but nothing happened with it.
A starring role alongside Katie Holmes
in The WB
's hit teen drama, Dawson's Creek
(1998–2003), helped raise them both to prominence. At age 17, Williams portrayed Creek character, Jen Lindley
, to whom she related because they both grew up "too fast." For filming of the semi-autobiographical series based on its creator, Kevin Williamson's childhood, she moved to North Carolina
. She described her character as "this stable, happy-go-lucky girl still wrestling with demons" to USA Today
. Open to having a reunion special, she said that being on Creek allowed her to choose projects solely for desire and was a blessing. Williams recalled of working on the program, "Being on a show like Dawson’s Creek for so long …you spend so much of the year doing something you are not entirely invested in. So when you devote yourself to nine months of the year to that kind of work, you have to make awfully certain that you spend the three precious months off in a way that’s true and not time-wasting."
While still working on Creek, Williams continued to make film appearances. In what would be her first mainstream
production, she accepted a role in the slasher film
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
(1998). It was a financial success, making $55 million against its $17 million budget. Alongside Kirsten Dunst
, Williams co-starred in 1999's comedy Dick
. The movie is a parody
retelling the events of the Watergate scandal
which led to the resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon
. She then began to do more challenging work, starting with a small part in But I'm a Cheerleader
, helmed by Jamie Babbit
.
. Divided into three separate sections, it follows lesbian couples in different time periods. Williams and Chloë Sevigny
appeared in the second segment which was about bitter divisions in the feminist movement during 1972. While Entertainment Weekly
critic, Ken Tucker, praised Sevigny, he assessed Williams to have overdone her character's "grinning eagerness to be naughty". From then on, the actress began to work on little seen independent features
. "I feel like I haven't been working in a particularly flashy or visible way," she reflected to Vogue magazine
. "If you weren't looking for them, you would miss the movies that I've made that I'm proud of." For Me Without You
(2001), Williams co-starred with Anna Friel
as a timid nerd in a film charting their different character's toxic friendship as the years go by. The movie amassed polarized reception with review aggregator
website, Rotten Tomatoes
, reporting it to have a 66 percent rating based on 65 reviews. Next up was Prozac Nation
(2002), starring Christina Ricci
and based on the autobiography of the same name
by Elizabeth Wurtzel
about her battle with major depression. Asked if her roommate role was interesting to play, Williams said: "I think what it needed to be was helpful. Somebody to stand like this [punches her hand] so that she [Ricci] could keep smacking up against it."
Those roles were followed by 2003's The United States of Leland
, which focused on Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling
) stabbing an autistic
boy to death, presumably without any motive. Williams stars in it as the victim's grieving sister. Reviews were mostly negative, with The Globe and Mail
s Liam Lacey calling it "neither an insightful nor well-made film." In what would be where, according to Total Film
, she found material better suited for her, Williams rounded out the year by joining Miramax Films
's BAFTA-winning The Station Agent
. A dramedy, it follows a dwarf
Fin (Peter Dinklage
) who lives in an abandoned train depot, and hesitantly starts a friendship with a librarian, played by Williams. Along with other cast members, including Bobby Cannavale
and Patricia Clarkson
, Williams was nominated for an Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a motion picture. After Creek ended that same year, Williams admitted having difficulty finding the right roles, as she was seen as a "pop tart".
Wim Wenders
wrote the film Land of Plenty
(2004), which investigates anxiety and disillusionment in a post-9/11
America, with the actress in mind. She later accepted the part of Lana, a homeless shelter worker trying to contact her troubled Vietnam veteran
uncle (John Diehl
). The 2007 Independent Spirit Awards
recognized Williams's work, nominating her for Best Actress
. She made her next screen appearance in Imaginary Heroes
, centering around the effect a son's suicide has on his suburban family. It made less than $300,000 worldwide in ticket sales. With Meat Loaf
, she starred as an impressionable young women fixated on mental health in the 2005 feature film debut of Richard Ledes
and the generally ignored period piece A Hole in One
". Something considered rare for the actress was appearing in the critically panned comedy The Baxter
, also starring director and writer Michael Showalter
as the protagonist. However, reviewers praised Williams. "Only when Williams is around does the movie seem human, true, and funny: Even in her slapstick there's pain. She's almost too good: It's not until she's left a scene that you realize the movie isn't working." observed The Boston Globe
reporter Wesley Morris. Released on August 26, Showalter's movie made $37,000 opening weekend before going on to gross over $180,000 domestically.
Williams gained public recognition for Brokeback Mountain
, a controversial film directed by Ang Lee
that depicts a 1960s homosexual relationship between Ennis Del Mar
and Jack Twist
(Heath Ledger
and Jake Gyllenhaal
). Williams plays Ennis's wife Alma, who starts to become aware of the true nature of his and Jack's relationship. After viewing The Station Agent, casting director Avy Kaufman
suggested Williams for Alma to the filmmaker. Going from a 5-theater screening to a 2,000-theater-plus screening, it was a box office
hit, grossing around $178 million worldwide in ticket sale revenue against its $14 million production costs. Subsequently, she was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, as was the film itself. Out of its eight nominations, which was the most for any film that year and included a Best Supporting Actress
nomination for Williams, it won three accolades at the 78th Academy Awards
. The saffron Vera Wang dress
which she wore to the Academy Awards in March 2006 has been cited by Cosmopolitan
magazine as one of the Best Oscar dresses of all time.
(2007), also starring Michael Pitt
. Its story tells of George (acted by Paul Giamatti
) trying to find meaning in his life by training a wild red-tailed hawk. Williams was cast as Pitt's girlfriend, the only person who understands George's growing obsession. The little-seen picture made just $7,000 domestically playing at one theater. Five months after giving birth, Williams was back in front of the camera for The Hottest State
, a film by Ethan Hawke
adapted from his 1996 book. Critics gave it negative reviews for being too pretentious and self-aware. Variety
writer Leslie Felperin believed the film underused Williams as one of the main character's former lovers. It did a limited theatrical run on August 24, ultimately grossing $137,340. Williams was also apart of the biographical ensemble piece I'm Not There
, inspired by musician Bob Dylan
, as a representation of Andy Warhol
muse Edie Sedgwick
. In October 2006, she signed on to play a blonde known as S, who seduces Ewan McGregor
's accountant character in what was originally called The Tourist, Deception
(2008). They again worked together, this time for Incendiary
, about the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a football game taken from former journalist Chris Cleaves's 2005 book Incendiary. She portrayed the protagonist, an unnamed adulterous British mother who loses her husband and son in the attack. In his The Independent
review, Robert Hanks assessed it to be "sloppy" and said Williams deserved better offers than this.
Impressed by her work in Dick, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
cast Williams in his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York
, with a cast featuring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Watson
. A box office bomb
, it was praised in the media, appearing on many top ten critic's lists for 2008. Wendy and Lucy
, an acclaimed small-budgeted low-key drama directed and co-written by Kelly Reichardt
, follows Wendy (Williams), a drifter looking to start a new life, searching for her dog Lucy after a series of setbacks. Unlike others, including the director, Williams did not find it to be depressing. "Personally I like seeing those kinds of movies. I find them comforting because they make me feel less alone." The actress also said Wendy and Lucy having a documentary-like feeling was a "gift" as that is the type of filmmaking she enjoys. Houston Chronicle
writer Amy Blancolll said her performance, "a bare-bones accomplishment of no small heft," was the movie's key. The Toronto Film Critics Association Awards named Williams and the film 2008's Best Actress
and Best Movie. Filming for Mammoth (2009) brought Williams to locations like Sweden, Thailand
and the Philippines. She and Gael García Bernal
played the co-leads: a successful couple experiencing conditions related to modern day globalization
. It was director Lukas Moodysson
's first English-language movie and found distribution through IFC Films
.
Martin Scorsese
cast the actress in the supporting, but vital role, of the dead wife haunting the dreams of marshal Teddy Daniels (played by Leonardo DiCaprio
) in Shutter Island, a psychological thriller based on Dennis Lehane
's 2003 best-selling novel
. Originally due out in October 2009, its release date was bumped to February 19, 2010. With $41.1 million in ticket sales at over 2,900 locations, Shutter Island gave Williams her widest release and best opening weekend stats. In December, she starred opposite Gosling again as a struggling married couple in the romantic drama Blue Valentine
. To better get into character, filmmaker Derek Cianfrance
made Williams and Gosling live together during the day for a month. She later said that the experience was great and wished she had appreciated it more. Shown at 2010's Sundance Film Festival
, Cannes Film Festival
and BFI London Film Festival, the movie was a hit among critics. Both actors were lauded with praise and awards attention. "Ms. Williams and Mr. Gosling are exemplars of New Method sincerity, able to be fully and achingly present every moment on screen together," wrote The New York Times
columnist A.O. Scott. Her performance as Cindy, who has grown tired of her husband's lack of direction and addictions, was also nominated for Best Actress by the Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards
.
Meek's Cutoff
was shot in Burns, Oregon
and reunited Williams with Reichardt. It is based on a historical incident on the Oregon Trail
in 1845, in which frontier guide Stephen Meek
led a wagon train on an ill-fated journey through a desert. After premiering during the 67th Venice International Film Festival
, the well-reviewed bleak period piece saw a limited release in cinemas starting April 8, 2011. Williams was cast over Kate Hudson
, Scarlett Johansson
, and Amy Adams
as Marilyn Monroe
in My Week with Marilyn
, a British drama based on two novels by Colin Clark
, depicting the making of the film The Prince and the Showgirl
(1957). Initially terrified of taking on the role, she turned down the offer. "Physically and vocally, everything about her is different from me," she explained. Eventually, she found the offer too good of an opportunity to pass-up. Williams took vocal lessons so she could sing in the movie, as lip-syncing was uncomfortable. Her next performance is in Take This Waltz (2011), directed by Sarah Polley
in Canada, that focuses on a young married couple (Williams and Seth Rogen
) dealing with monogamy and fidelity. During 2011, it was reported that Williams signed on to star in Walt Disney Pictures
's Oz, The Great and Powerful, a 3-D prequel to be released March 8, 2013.
in 2004 after meeting on the set of their film. In late April 2005 People
first reported that Williams and Ledger were expecting a child together. At the age of 25, on October 28, 2005, Williams gave birth to their first child: a daughter named Matilda Rose Ledger, whom she later called the center of her life.
During the couple's time together, they opted to have a low-key life in Brooklyn, New York. By September 2007, Williams and Ledger amicably ended their three year relationship. Of the break-up, People quoted her telling Elle magazine
, "I didn't know where to go. I couldn't imagine any place in the world that was gonna feel good to me." After Ledger's death from an accidental overdose
in January 2008, the usually under-the-radar actress and her young daughter became an interest of the media and were often followed by paparazzi
. As a result, Williams rarely gave interviews until the end of 2009. On February 1, 2008, in her first public statement after Ledger's death, Williams expressed her heartbreak and described Ledger's spirit as surviving in their daughter. Later that month she attended his memorial and funeral services.
Several months after Ledger's death, the actress began dating director Spike Jonze
, but around a year later they split.
Jen Lindley
Jennifer "Jen" Lindley is a fictional character on the American television drama Dawson's Creek. The character is portrayed by American actress Michelle Williams.-Season One:...
on the WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
television teen drama
Teen drama
A teen drama is a dramatic television series with a major focus on teenage characters. The genre was relatively non-existent for the first 45 years of television; it came into prominence in the early 1990s...
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons...
, which she played from 1998 to 2003. Williams graduated to full-length features, including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert...
, her first mainstream film
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
, Dick
Dick (film)
Dick is a 1999 American comedy film directed by Andrew Fleming from a script he wrote with Sheryl Longin. It is a parody retelling the events of the Watergate scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon and features several cast members from Saturday Night Live.Kirsten Dunst and Michelle...
(1999), a comedy, and Prozac Nation
Prozac Nation (film)
Prozac Nation is a 2001 American drama film directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, starring Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs and Anne Heche. . It is based on an autobiography of the same name by Elizabeth Wurtzel, which describes Wurtzel's experiences with major depression...
(2001).
From the 2000s Williams appeared primarily in dramatic, independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
s for which she has received critical acclaim. A career highlight was 2005's controversial movie, Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
, about a male homosexual relationship in the 1960s, which earned Williams a Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
nomination from the Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. She followed this with I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...
(2007), Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was Kaufman's directorial debut.The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2008...
(2008) and Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's Shutter Island (2010). Williams's performance as a drifter in 2008's Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy is a 2008 American drama film directed by Kelly Reichardt. Reichardt and Jon Raymond adapted the screenplay from his short story "Train Choir". The film stars Michelle Williams and Will Patton...
earned her critical praise and her work opposite Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
in Blue Valentine
Blue Valentine (film)
Blue Valentine is a 2010 romantic drama film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance. The film premiered in competition at the 26th Sundance Film Festival. Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis wrote the film, and Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling played the lead roles...
(2010) received another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
. She played Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
in My Week with Marilyn
My Week with Marilyn
My Week with Marilyn is a British drama film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges. It stars Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Dougray Scott, Judi Dench and Emma Watson. Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the...
(2011) and will appear in 2013's 3-D Oz: The Great and Powerful
Oz: The Great and Powerful
Oz: the Great and Powerful is an upcoming 2013 fantasy film directed by Sam Raimi for release in 2013. The film, adapted from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is intended as a prequel to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz...
.
Williams had a high-profile relationship with actor and Brokeback Mountain co-star, Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
. They had one child together before separating in 2007; daughter, Matilda Rose, born October 28, 2005.
Early life
Williams was born on September 9, 1980, in Kalispell, MontanaKalispell, Montana
Kalispell is a city in and the county seat of Flathead County, Montana, United States. The 2010 census put Kalispell's population at 19,927 up 5,704 over 2000. At 40.1% this is the largest percentage of growth of any incorporated city in Montana. Kalispell is the largest city and commercial center...
, the daughter of Carla Ingrid (née Swenson), a homemaker
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
, and Larry Richard Williams, an author, and stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
and commodities trader. He was also a two-time Republican candidate
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
for the United States senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
. She is of part Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
descent. Since a child, Williams kept to herself and was self-sufficient; as she has said, "I was really secretive with my parents and I think I sort of continued that... I found that by keeping to myself I got on OK. I don't know why." When Williams was nine, her family moved to San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, and she became interested in acting at an early age.
1990s
Williams began her career in the early 1990s by making guest appearances on television programs such as Step by Step and Home Improvement. The July 1994 release of Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
s adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
Lassie
Lassie (1994 film)
Lassie is a 1994 adventure family film directed by Daniel Petrie and featuring the fictional collie Lassie.-Plot:The Turner family moves from the big city to the rural countryside in Virginia, hoping to start a new life. The move creates problems for everyone, especially 13-year old Matt, who...
marked the actress's screen debut. Her role as the younger version of Sil, an alien-human who quickly grows up to become the monster character played by Natasha Henstridge
Natasha Henstridge
Natasha T. Henstridge is a Canadian fashion model turned actress. Her most notable on-screen roles include Species, The Whole Nine Yards, It Had To Be You, Ghosts of Mars, She Spies, the TV series Eli Stone, and the Canadian TV mini-series Would Be Kings, for which she won the Gemini Award for...
, in Species
Species (film)
Species is a 1995 science fiction horror film directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, and Natasha Henstridge...
opened Williams to a wider audience. Following this, Williams made appearances in the made-for-television movies My Son Is Innocent (1996), which saw her transition into more dramatic work, and Killing Mr. Griffin
Killing Mr. Griffin
Killing Mr. Griffin is a novel for young adults by Lois Duncan.It is about a group of teenage students at Del Norte High School who plan to kidnap their strict English teacher, Mr. Griffin. The book was adapted to film in 1997, sharing the same title as the book, starring Jay Thomas, Mario Lopez,...
, where she plays a member of Susan's (played by Amy Jo Johnson
Amy Jo Johnson
Amy Jo Johnson is an American actress, singer, songwriter and musician.She is best known for her roles in the televison series as the constable Jules Callaghan in the Canadian CTV television series Flashpoint, the famous jockey Tina Sharp in the ABC Family's original show Wildfire, the rookie cop...
) geek clique in 1997.
At age 15, faced with her parents's disapproval, she emancipated herself from them. This was in order for Williams to better pursue her acting career and not have to worry about child labor work laws
Child labor laws in the United States
Child labor laws in the United States include numerous statutes and rules regulating the employment of minors. According to the United States Department of Labor, child labor laws affect those under the age of 18 in a variety of occupations....
. After completing the ninth grade at the Upper School of Santa Fe Christian Schools
Santa Fe Christian Schools
Santa Fe Christian Schools is a private, college preparatory, Christian school, located in Solana Beach, California. It serves approximately 1000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade....
, in Solana Beach, California
Solana Beach, California
Solana Beach is a city in San Diego County, California. The population was 12,867 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Solana Beach is located at ....
, she left school because of severe bullying. Subsequently, Williams was home-tutored
Homeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
by her mother and graduated early. After moving to Los Angeles, she quickly secured a prominent role in Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons...
. Reflecting on decisions as a teen, Williams commented that she thought she knew all there was needed to know since age 15. She also admitted in 2011 that she promptly chose to be emancipated after being influenced by celebrity headlines about young actors doing the same. In 1997, unhappy with the roles they were being offered, Williams and several other actor friends wrote a script entitled Blink. It was sold, but nothing happened with it.
A starring role alongside Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes
Katherine Noelle "Katie" Holmes is an American actress who first achieved fame for her role as Joey Potter on The WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. Her movie roles have included the blockbuster Batman Begins along with art house films such as The Ice Storm and thrillers...
in The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
's hit teen drama, Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons...
(1998–2003), helped raise them both to prominence. At age 17, Williams portrayed Creek character, Jen Lindley
Jen Lindley
Jennifer "Jen" Lindley is a fictional character on the American television drama Dawson's Creek. The character is portrayed by American actress Michelle Williams.-Season One:...
, to whom she related because they both grew up "too fast." For filming of the semi-autobiographical series based on its creator, Kevin Williamson's childhood, she moved to North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. She described her character as "this stable, happy-go-lucky girl still wrestling with demons" to USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
. Open to having a reunion special, she said that being on Creek allowed her to choose projects solely for desire and was a blessing. Williams recalled of working on the program, "Being on a show like Dawson’s Creek for so long …you spend so much of the year doing something you are not entirely invested in. So when you devote yourself to nine months of the year to that kind of work, you have to make awfully certain that you spend the three precious months off in a way that’s true and not time-wasting."
While still working on Creek, Williams continued to make film appearances. In what would be her first mainstream
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
production, she accepted a role in the slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert...
(1998). It was a financial success, making $55 million against its $17 million budget. Alongside Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Dunst
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
, Williams co-starred in 1999's comedy Dick
Dick (film)
Dick is a 1999 American comedy film directed by Andrew Fleming from a script he wrote with Sheryl Longin. It is a parody retelling the events of the Watergate scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon and features several cast members from Saturday Night Live.Kirsten Dunst and Michelle...
. The movie is a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
retelling the events of the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
which led to the resignation of U.S. president Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
. She then began to do more challenging work, starting with a small part in But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader
But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy heterosexual high school cheerleader...
, helmed by Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. She has also directed episodes of television programs including Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, United States of Tara, Nip/Tuck and...
.
2000–2005
She then appeared in the 2000 HBO television movie sequel If These Walls Could Talk 2If These Walls Could Talk 2
If These Walls Could Talk 2 is an Emmy Award-winning 2000 television movie in the United States, broadcast on HBO. It follows three separate storylines about lesbian couples in three different time periods...
. Divided into three separate sections, it follows lesbian couples in different time periods. Williams and Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Sevigny
Chloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
appeared in the second segment which was about bitter divisions in the feminist movement during 1972. While Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
critic, Ken Tucker, praised Sevigny, he assessed Williams to have overdone her character's "grinning eagerness to be naughty". From then on, the actress began to work on little seen independent features
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
. "I feel like I haven't been working in a particularly flashy or visible way," she reflected to Vogue magazine
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
. "If you weren't looking for them, you would miss the movies that I've made that I'm proud of." For Me Without You
Me Without You (film)
Me Without You is a 2001 British film, starring Anna Friel, Michelle Williams and Oliver Milburn, and written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher.- Plot :...
(2001), Williams co-starred with Anna Friel
Anna Friel
Anna Louise Friel is an English actress. She rose to fame in the UK as Beth Jordache on the Channel 4 soap Brookside.-Early life:...
as a timid nerd in a film charting their different character's toxic friendship as the years go by. The movie amassed polarized reception with review aggregator
Review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
website, Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, reporting it to have a 66 percent rating based on 65 reviews. Next up was Prozac Nation
Prozac Nation (film)
Prozac Nation is a 2001 American drama film directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, starring Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs and Anne Heche. . It is based on an autobiography of the same name by Elizabeth Wurtzel, which describes Wurtzel's experiences with major depression...
(2002), starring Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...
and based on the autobiography of the same name
Prozac Nation (book)
Prozac Nation , an autobiography published in 1994 and written by Elizabeth Wurtzel, describes the author's experiences with major depression, her own character failings and how she managed to live through particularly difficult periods while completing college and working as a writer...
by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Elizabeth Wurtzel
Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel is an American corporate attorney, writer and journalist, known for her work in the confessional memoir genre. She is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.-Early life:...
about her battle with major depression. Asked if her roommate role was interesting to play, Williams said: "I think what it needed to be was helpful. Somebody to stand like this [punches her hand] so that she [Ricci] could keep smacking up against it."
Those roles were followed by 2003's The United States of Leland
The United States of Leland
The United States of Leland is a 2003 American drama film by director Matthew Ryan Hoge and producer Kevin Spacey about a meek teenaged boy named Leland P. Fitzgerald who has inexplicably committed a shocking murder...
, which focused on Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Thomas Gosling is a Canadian actor and musician. He first came to public attention as a child star on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and went on to appear in other family entertainment programmes including Are You Afraid of the Dark? , Goosebumps , Breaker High and Young Hercules...
) stabbing an autistic
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...
boy to death, presumably without any motive. Williams stars in it as the victim's grieving sister. Reviews were mostly negative, with The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
s Liam Lacey calling it "neither an insightful nor well-made film." In what would be where, according to Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
, she found material better suited for her, Williams rounded out the year by joining Miramax Films
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
's BAFTA-winning The Station Agent
The Station Agent
The Station Agent is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. McCarthy's script about a man who seeks solitude in an abandoned train station in Newfoundland, New Jersey won him the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.-Plot:Finbar McBride, a quiet,...
. A dramedy, it follows a dwarf
Dwarfism
Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....
Fin (Peter Dinklage
Peter Dinklage
Peter Dinklage is an American film, television and theater actor. Since his breakout role in the 2003 film The Station Agent, he has acted in Elf, Underdog, Find Me Guilty, the 2007 film Death at a Funeral and its 2010 remake, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian...
) who lives in an abandoned train depot, and hesitantly starts a friendship with a librarian, played by Williams. Along with other cast members, including Bobby Cannavale
Bobby Cannavale
Robert M. "Bobby" Cannavale is an American actor known for his leading role as Bobby Caffey in the first two seasons of the television series Third Watch. He also had a recurring role as Officer Vince D'Angelo on the comedy series Will & Grace.-Early life:Cannavale grew up in Union City, New...
and Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
, Williams was nominated for an Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a motion picture. After Creek ended that same year, Williams admitted having difficulty finding the right roles, as she was seen as a "pop tart".
Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
wrote the film Land of Plenty
Land of Plenty (2004 film)
Land of Plenty is a 2004 drama film directed by Wim Wenders starring Michelle Williams and John Diehl. The title of the film comes from the song "The Land of Plenty", written by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson, which was used in the movie.-Plot:...
(2004), which investigates anxiety and disillusionment in a post-9/11
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
America, with the actress in mind. She later accepted the part of Lana, a homeless shelter worker trying to contact her troubled Vietnam veteran
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
uncle (John Diehl
John Diehl
John Diehl is an American actor, particularly known for his roles as Charles Kawalsky in the 1994 film Stargate, Det. Larry Zito on the 1980s cop show Miami Vice, Assistant Chief Ben Gilroy on The Shield, and as "the Cruiser" in Stripes. His other notable roles include Pvt...
). The 2007 Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards 2007
The Independent Spirit Awards 2007 announced its nominees in November 2007. The ceremony was broadcast live on Independent Film Channel on February 23, 2008 and hosted by actor Rainn Wilson...
recognized Williams's work, nominating her for Best Actress
Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress
The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Female Lead is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
. She made her next screen appearance in Imaginary Heroes
Imaginary Heroes
Imaginary Heroes is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Dan Harris. It focuses on the traumatic effect the suicide of the elder son has on a suburban family.-Plot:...
, centering around the effect a son's suicide has on his suburban family. It made less than $300,000 worldwide in ticket sales. With Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
, she starred as an impressionable young women fixated on mental health in the 2005 feature film debut of Richard Ledes
Richard Ledes
Richard Ledes is an award-winning American filmmaker and writer based in New York City.-Background:Ledes began making Super 8 films at the age of twelve and would return to filmmaking later in life....
and the generally ignored period piece A Hole in One
A Hole in One
A Hole in One is a 2004 film co-starring Michelle Williams and Meat Loaf. The film marked the feature debut of writer/director Richard Ledes. It received its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2003.-Plot:...
". Something considered rare for the actress was appearing in the critically panned comedy The Baxter
The Baxter
The Baxter is a 2005 film written by, directed by and starring American comedian Michael Showalter. A “Baxter”, as defined by the film, is the nice, dull guy in a romantic comedy who is dumped at the end of the story for the protagonist....
, also starring director and writer Michael Showalter
Michael Showalter
Michael English Showalter is an American comedian, actor, writer, and director. He is a member of the sketch comedy trio Stella. Showalter first came to recognition as a cast member on MTV's The State, which aired from 1993 to 1995...
as the protagonist. However, reviewers praised Williams. "Only when Williams is around does the movie seem human, true, and funny: Even in her slapstick there's pain. She's almost too good: It's not until she's left a scene that you realize the movie isn't working." observed The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
reporter Wesley Morris. Released on August 26, Showalter's movie made $37,000 opening weekend before going on to gross over $180,000 domestically.
Williams gained public recognition for Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...
, a controversial film directed by Ang Lee
Ang Lee
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese film director. Lee has directed a diverse set of films such as Eat Drink Man Woman , Sense and Sensibility , Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Hulk , and Brokeback Mountain , for which he won an Academy...
that depicts a 1960s homosexual relationship between Ennis Del Mar
Ennis Del Mar
Ennis del Mar is the fictional main character of the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name directed by Ang Lee. Ennis's story is depicted by his complex, sexual, and romantic relationship with Jack Twist in the American...
and Jack Twist
Jack Twist
Jack Twist is a fictional character of the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx and the 2005 Academy Award-winning film adaptation of the same name directed by Ang Lee, where he was portrayed by American actor Jake Gyllenhaal...
(Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
and Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
). Williams plays Ennis's wife Alma, who starts to become aware of the true nature of his and Jack's relationship. After viewing The Station Agent, casting director Avy Kaufman
Avy Kaufman
Avy Kaufman is an Emmy award-winning casting director based in New York City, New York, known for her work in film and television. Kaufman has worked with directors including Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, and Wes Craven....
suggested Williams for Alma to the filmmaker. Going from a 5-theater screening to a 2,000-theater-plus screening, it was a box office
Box office
A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through an unblocked hole through a wall or window, or at a wicket....
hit, grossing around $178 million worldwide in ticket sale revenue against its $14 million production costs. Subsequently, she was nominated for most of the high-profile awards, as was the film itself. Out of its eight nominations, which was the most for any film that year and included a Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
nomination for Williams, it won three accolades at the 78th Academy Awards
78th Academy Awards
The 78th Academy Awards honored the best films of 2005 and were held on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, with Tom Kane making his first appearance as the show's announcer...
. The saffron Vera Wang dress
Saffron Vera Wang dress of Michelle Williams
The saffron Vera Wang dress of Michelle Williams refers to the saffron colored dress worn by Michelle Williams at the 78th Academy Awards on March 5, 2006.-Design:...
which she wore to the Academy Awards in March 2006 has been cited by Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
magazine as one of the Best Oscar dresses of all time.
2006–present
After a two-year film absence, Williams returned with The Hawk Is DyingThe Hawk is Dying
The Hawk Is Dying is a 2006 film based on the book by Harry Crews. It was accepted to the 2006 Director's Fortnight Competition at the Cannes Film Festival...
(2007), also starring Michael Pitt
Michael Pitt
Michael Carmen Pitt is an American actor and musician. Pitt is best known in film for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, and in television for his portrayal of James "Jimmy" Darmody in the hit HBO series Boardwalk Empire.-Personal life:Pitt was born in West Orange, New Jersey, the...
. Its story tells of George (acted by Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
) trying to find meaning in his life by training a wild red-tailed hawk. Williams was cast as Pitt's girlfriend, the only person who understands George's growing obsession. The little-seen picture made just $7,000 domestically playing at one theater. Five months after giving birth, Williams was back in front of the camera for The Hottest State
The Hottest State
The Hottest State is a 2006 drama directed and written by Ethan Hawke, based on Hawke's 1996 novel of the same name. The film debuted at the Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2006, and received a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 24, 2007. It ran for 5 weeks and grossed...
, a film by Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...
adapted from his 1996 book. Critics gave it negative reviews for being too pretentious and self-aware. Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
writer Leslie Felperin believed the film underused Williams as one of the main character's former lovers. It did a limited theatrical run on August 24, ultimately grossing $137,340. Williams was also apart of the biographical ensemble piece I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...
, inspired by musician Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, as a representation of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
muse Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
. In October 2006, she signed on to play a blonde known as S, who seduces Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor is a Scottish actor. He has had success in mainstream, indie, and art house films. McGregor is perhaps best known for his roles as heroin addict Mark Renton in the drama Trainspotting , young Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy , and poet Christian in the...
's accountant character in what was originally called The Tourist, Deception
Deception (2008 film)
Deception is a 2008 drama/thriller film, directed by Marcel Langenegger and written by Mark Bomback. It stars Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, and Michelle Williams. The film was released on April 25, 2008 in the United States.-Plot:...
(2008). They again worked together, this time for Incendiary
Incendiary (film)
Incendiary is a 2008 British drama film portraying the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a football match. It is directed by Sharon Maguire and stars Michelle Williams, Ewan McGregor, and Matthew Macfadyen. It is about an adulterous woman's life that is torn apart when her husband and...
, about the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a football game taken from former journalist Chris Cleaves's 2005 book Incendiary. She portrayed the protagonist, an unnamed adulterous British mother who loses her husband and son in the attack. In his The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
review, Robert Hanks assessed it to be "sloppy" and said Williams deserved better offers than this.
Impressed by her work in Dick, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman
Charlie Kaufman
Charles Stuart "Charlie" Kaufman is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. His film work includes Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York...
cast Williams in his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was Kaufman's directorial debut.The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2008...
, with a cast featuring Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Watson
Emily Watson
Emily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
. A box office bomb
Box office bomb
The phrase box office bomb refers to a film for which the production and marketing costs greatly exceeded the revenue regained by the movie studio. This should not be confused with Hollywood accounting when official figures show large losses, yet the movie is a financial success.A film's financial...
, it was praised in the media, appearing on many top ten critic's lists for 2008. Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy is a 2008 American drama film directed by Kelly Reichardt. Reichardt and Jon Raymond adapted the screenplay from his short story "Train Choir". The film stars Michelle Williams and Will Patton...
, an acclaimed small-budgeted low-key drama directed and co-written by Kelly Reichardt
Kelly Reichardt
Kelly Reichardt is a screenwriter and film director working within American indie cinema. Her debut film River of Grass was released in 1994. It was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. In 1999, she completed her sophomore...
, follows Wendy (Williams), a drifter looking to start a new life, searching for her dog Lucy after a series of setbacks. Unlike others, including the director, Williams did not find it to be depressing. "Personally I like seeing those kinds of movies. I find them comforting because they make me feel less alone." The actress also said Wendy and Lucy having a documentary-like feeling was a "gift" as that is the type of filmmaking she enjoys. Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
writer Amy Blancolll said her performance, "a bare-bones accomplishment of no small heft," was the movie's key. The Toronto Film Critics Association Awards named Williams and the film 2008's Best Actress
Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress
The Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of the annual awards given by the Toronto Film Critics Association:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
and Best Movie. Filming for Mammoth (2009) brought Williams to locations like Sweden, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and the Philippines. She and Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
played the co-leads: a successful couple experiencing conditions related to modern day globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
. It was director Lukas Moodysson
Lukas Moodysson
- External links :*...
's first English-language movie and found distribution through IFC Films
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
.
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
cast the actress in the supporting, but vital role, of the dead wife haunting the dreams of marshal Teddy Daniels (played by Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
) in Shutter Island, a psychological thriller based on Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy...
's 2003 best-selling novel
Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, published by Harper Collins in April 2003. A film adaptation was released in February 2010. Lehane has said he sought to write a novel that would be an homage to Gothic settings, B movies, and pulp. He described the novel as a hybrid of the...
. Originally due out in October 2009, its release date was bumped to February 19, 2010. With $41.1 million in ticket sales at over 2,900 locations, Shutter Island gave Williams her widest release and best opening weekend stats. In December, she starred opposite Gosling again as a struggling married couple in the romantic drama Blue Valentine
Blue Valentine (film)
Blue Valentine is a 2010 romantic drama film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance. The film premiered in competition at the 26th Sundance Film Festival. Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis wrote the film, and Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling played the lead roles...
. To better get into character, filmmaker Derek Cianfrance
Derek Cianfrance
-Biography:Cianfrance earned a B.F.A. in Film Production from the University of Colorado, studying under avant-garde filmmakers Stan Brakhage and Phil Solomon. At 23, he wrote, directed and edited his first feature film, Brother Tied, which was well-received at festivals including Sundance.His...
made Williams and Gosling live together during the day for a month. She later said that the experience was great and wished she had appreciated it more. Shown at 2010's Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
and BFI London Film Festival, the movie was a hit among critics. Both actors were lauded with praise and awards attention. "Ms. Williams and Mr. Gosling are exemplars of New Method sincerity, able to be fully and achingly present every moment on screen together," wrote The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
columnist A.O. Scott. Her performance as Cindy, who has grown tired of her husband's lack of direction and addictions, was also nominated for Best Actress by the Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
.
Meek's Cutoff
Meek's Cutoff
Meek's Cutoff is a 2010 western film directed by Kelly Reichardt. The film was shown in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival...
was shot in Burns, Oregon
Burns, Oregon
Burns is a city in and the county seat of Harney County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 2,806.-History:Burns was established in the early 1880s and incorporated upon Harney county's creation in 1889...
and reunited Williams with Reichardt. It is based on a historical incident on the Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...
in 1845, in which frontier guide Stephen Meek
Stephen Meek
Stephen Hall Meek was a fur trapper and guide in the American west, most notably a guide on a large wagon train known as St. Joseph's Company...
led a wagon train on an ill-fated journey through a desert. After premiering during the 67th Venice International Film Festival
67th Venice International Film Festival
The 67th annual Venice Film Festival held in Venice, Italy, took place from September 1 to September 11, 2010. American film director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino was head of the Jury. John Woo was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement prior to the start of the Festival...
, the well-reviewed bleak period piece saw a limited release in cinemas starting April 8, 2011. Williams was cast over Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
, Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
, and Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
as Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
in My Week with Marilyn
My Week with Marilyn
My Week with Marilyn is a British drama film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges. It stars Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Dougray Scott, Judi Dench and Emma Watson. Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the...
, a British drama based on two novels by Colin Clark
Colin Clark (filmmaker)
Colin Clark was a British writer and filmmaker who specialised in films for cinema and television about the arts...
, depicting the making of the film The Prince and the Showgirl
The Prince and the Showgirl
The Prince and the Showgirl is a 1957 American film produced at Pinewood Studios starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Laurence Olivier who also served as director and producer.The film was released on 13 June 1957...
(1957). Initially terrified of taking on the role, she turned down the offer. "Physically and vocally, everything about her is different from me," she explained. Eventually, she found the offer too good of an opportunity to pass-up. Williams took vocal lessons so she could sing in the movie, as lip-syncing was uncomfortable. Her next performance is in Take This Waltz (2011), directed by Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley
Sarah Polley is a Canadian actress, singer, film director, and screenwriter. Polley first attained notice in her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series, Road to Avonlea...
in Canada, that focuses on a young married couple (Williams and Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and...
) dealing with monogamy and fidelity. During 2011, it was reported that Williams signed on to star in Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
's Oz, The Great and Powerful, a 3-D prequel to be released March 8, 2013.
Personal life
Williams began dating Australian actor and Brokeback Mountain co-star Heath LedgerHeath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
in 2004 after meeting on the set of their film. In late April 2005 People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
first reported that Williams and Ledger were expecting a child together. At the age of 25, on October 28, 2005, Williams gave birth to their first child: a daughter named Matilda Rose Ledger, whom she later called the center of her life.
During the couple's time together, they opted to have a low-key life in Brooklyn, New York. By September 2007, Williams and Ledger amicably ended their three year relationship. Of the break-up, People quoted her telling Elle magazine
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, "I didn't know where to go. I couldn't imagine any place in the world that was gonna feel good to me." After Ledger's death from an accidental overdose
Combined drug intoxication
Combined drug intoxication , also known as multiple drug intake or lethal polydrug/polypharmacy intoxication, is an unnatural cause of human death...
in January 2008, the usually under-the-radar actress and her young daughter became an interest of the media and were often followed by paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
. As a result, Williams rarely gave interviews until the end of 2009. On February 1, 2008, in her first public statement after Ledger's death, Williams expressed her heartbreak and described Ledger's spirit as surviving in their daughter. Later that month she attended his memorial and funeral services.
Several months after Ledger's death, the actress began dating director Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television...
, but around a year later they split.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Baywatch Baywatch Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show ran in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999, sans the 1990-1991 season, of which it was not in production... |
Bridget Bowers | TV series (one episode: "Race Against Times: Part 1") |
| 1994 | Step by Step | J.J. | TV series (one episode: "Something Wild") |
| 1994 | Lassie Lassie (1994 film) Lassie is a 1994 adventure family film directed by Daniel Petrie and featuring the fictional collie Lassie.-Plot:The Turner family moves from the big city to the rural countryside in Virginia, hoping to start a new life. The move creates problems for everyone, especially 13-year old Matt, who... |
April Porter | Nominated— Young Artist Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress Co-Starring in a Motion Picture Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... |
| 1995 | Timemaster | Jesse | |
| 1995 | Home Improvement | Jessica Lutz | TV series (one episode: "Wilson's Girlfriend") |
| 1995 | Species Species (film) Species is a 1995 science fiction horror film directed by Roger Donaldson, and starring Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, and Natasha Henstridge... |
Young Sil | |
| 1996 | My Son Is Innocent | Donna | TV film |
| 1997 | Killing Mr. Griffin Killing Mr. Griffin Killing Mr. Griffin is a novel for young adults by Lois Duncan.It is about a group of teenage students at Del Norte High School who plan to kidnap their strict English teacher, Mr. Griffin. The book was adapted to film in 1997, sharing the same title as the book, starring Jay Thomas, Mario Lopez,... |
Maya | |
| 1997 | Pammy | ||
| 1998 | Halloween H20: 20 Years Later Halloween H20: 20 Years Later Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later is a 1998 slasher film and is the seventh installment in the Halloween film series. It is directed by Steve Miner and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Michelle Williams. The screenplay, based on a story by Kevin Williamson further developed by Robert... |
Molly Cartwell | Nominated— Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actress Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... |
| 1998 | Dawson's Creek Dawson's Creek Dawson's Creek is an American teen drama television series which debuted on January 20, 1998, on The WB Television Network and was produced by Sony Pictures Television. The show is set in the fictional seaside town of Capeside, Massachusetts, and in Boston, Massachusetts, during the later seasons... |
Jen Lindley Jen Lindley Jennifer "Jen" Lindley is a fictional character on the American television drama Dawson's Creek. The character is portrayed by American actress Michelle Williams.-Season One:... |
TV series (1998–2003) Nominated—YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama TV Series Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... (1998) Nominated—YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama TV Series Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... (1999) |
| 1999 | Dick Dick (film) Dick is a 1999 American comedy film directed by Andrew Fleming from a script he wrote with Sheryl Longin. It is a parody retelling the events of the Watergate scandal which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon and features several cast members from Saturday Night Live.Kirsten Dunst and Michelle... |
Arlene Lorenzo | Nominated— Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress Young Artist Award The Young Artist Award is an accolade bestowed by the Young Artist Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1978 to recognize and award excellence of youth performers, and to provide scholarships for young artists who may be physically and/or financially challenged.The Young Artist... |
| 1999 | But I'm a Cheerleader But I'm a Cheerleader But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, an apparently happy heterosexual high school cheerleader... |
Kimberly | |
| 2000 | If These Walls Could Talk 2 If These Walls Could Talk 2 If These Walls Could Talk 2 is an Emmy Award-winning 2000 television movie in the United States, broadcast on HBO. It follows three separate storylines about lesbian couples in three different time periods... |
Linda | TV film Lucy Award for Excellence in a Motion Picture Made for Television |
| 2001 | Me Without You Me Without You (film) Me Without You is a 2001 British film, starring Anna Friel, Michelle Williams and Oliver Milburn, and written and directed by Sandra Goldbacher.- Plot :... |
Holly | |
| 2001 | Prozac Nation Prozac Nation (film) Prozac Nation is a 2001 American drama film directed by Erik Skjoldbjærg, starring Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs and Anne Heche. . It is based on an autobiography of the same name by Elizabeth Wurtzel, which describes Wurtzel's experiences with major depression... |
Ruby | |
| 2003 | Julie Pollard | ||
| 2003 | Emily | Nominated—Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast The Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast is an annual award given by the Phoenix Film Critics Society.-2000s:*2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring... Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
|
| 2004 | Land of Plenty | Lana | Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Female Lead is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
| 2004 | Imaginary Heroes Imaginary Heroes Imaginary Heroes is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Dan Harris. It focuses on the traumatic effect the suicide of the elder son has on a suburban family.-Plot:... |
Penny Travis | |
| 2005 | Anna Watson | ||
| 2005 | Cecil Mills | ||
| 2005 | Brokeback Mountain Brokeback Mountain Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry... |
Alma Beers (Alma del Mar) |
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress The Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is an award given by the Phoenix Film Critics Society to honor the finest achievements in acting.-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... Nominated—BAFTA Award for Rising Star Award Rising Star Award, BAFTA Rising Star Award is one of the award categories for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts which acknowledges new talents in the acting industry. The award was created after Mary Selway's death in 2004... Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Nominated—Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City... Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress The Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress is an annual film award given by the Online Film Critics Society to honor the best supporting actress of the year.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated—Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress is one of the annual awards given by the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association.-2000s:-2010s:... |
| 2007 | Betty | ||
| 2007 | Samantha | ||
| 2007 | I'm Not There I'm Not There I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw... |
Coco Rivington | |
| 2008 | Deception Deception (2008 film) Deception is a 2008 drama/thriller film, directed by Marcel Langenegger and written by Mark Bomback. It stars Ewan McGregor, Hugh Jackman, and Michelle Williams. The film was released on April 25, 2008 in the United States.-Plot:... |
S | |
| 2008 | Incendiary Incendiary (film) Incendiary is a 2008 British drama film portraying the aftermath of a terrorist attack at a football match. It is directed by Sharon Maguire and stars Michelle Williams, Ewan McGregor, and Matthew Macfadyen. It is about an adulterous woman's life that is torn apart when her husband and... |
Young Mother | |
| 2008 | Synecdoche, New York Synecdoche, New York Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was Kaufman's directorial debut.The film premiered in competition at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2008... |
Claire | Robert Altman Award Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City... |
| 2008 | Wendy and Lucy Wendy and Lucy Wendy and Lucy is a 2008 American drama film directed by Kelly Reichardt. Reichardt and Jon Raymond adapted the screenplay from his short story "Train Choir". The film stars Michelle Williams and Will Patton... |
Wendy Carrol | Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress The Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress is an annual film award given by the Online Film Critics Society to honor the best lead actress of the year.Reese Witherspoon and Naomi Watts have each won this award twice.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of the annual awards given by the Toronto Film Critics Association:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated—Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Actress Alliance of Women Film Journalists The Alliance of Women Film Journalists is a group of female journalists based out of New York, United States that was founded in 2006. The AWFJ is composed of 45 professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, dedicated to supporting... Nominated—Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress The Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress is an award given by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film to the actress or actresses whose winning performance is voted by participating members. The Chlotrudis Awards is an annual ceremony where the best of the previous year's independent and... Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Female Lead is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
| 2009 | Mammoth | Ellen Vidales | |
| 2010 | Shutter Island | Dolores Chanal | Nominated— Teen Choice Awards for Thriller Movie Actress Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with... |
| 2010 | Blue Valentine Blue Valentine (film) Blue Valentine is a 2010 romantic drama film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance. The film premiered in competition at the 26th Sundance Film Festival. Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis wrote the film, and Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling played the lead roles... |
Cindy Pereira | San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress The San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress is one of the awards given by the San Francisco Film Critics Circle to honor the finest achievements in filmmaking.-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... Nominated—Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Actress Alliance of Women Film Journalists The Alliance of Women Film Journalists is a group of female journalists based out of New York, United States that was founded in 2006. The AWFJ is composed of 45 professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, dedicated to supporting... Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is an award given by the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association to honor the best achievements in filmmaking.-Winners and nominees:*1993: Holly Hunter - The Piano*1994:... Nominated—Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Denver Film Critics Society The Denver Film Critics Society is an organization of film critics based in Denver, Colorado. -2009 Winners and Nominees:Best Film*The Hurt Locker**A Serious Man**Star Trek**Up in the AirBest Director... Nominated—Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Detroit Film Critics Society The Detroit Film Critics Society is a film critic organization in Detroit, Michigan, United States.-2007 Awards:The nominees for the Detroit Film Critics Society Awards 2007 were announced on 15 December and the winners were announced on 21 December 2007.-Best Actor:**George Clooney - Michael... Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Female Lead is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2010 -Best Actor:Colin Farrell – Ondine*Aaron Eckhart – Rabbit Hole*Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network*Colin Firth – The King's Speech*James Franco – 127 Hours-Best Actress:... Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated—Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress The Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress is one of the annual awards given by the Toronto Film Critics Association:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... Nominated—Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Utah Film Critics Association Awards 2010 The 6th Utah Film Critics Association Awards honoring the best filmmaking of 2010, were announced on December 23, 2010.-Best Actor:*Jeff Bridges - True Grit*Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network*Colin Firth - The King's Speech... |
| 2011 | Meek's Cutoff Meek's Cutoff Meek's Cutoff is a 2010 western film directed by Kelly Reichardt. The film was shown in competition at the 67th Venice International Film Festival... |
Emily Tetherow | Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Actress Hollywood Film Festival The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington.... |
| 2011 | My Week with Marilyn My Week with Marilyn My Week with Marilyn is a British drama film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges. It stars Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Dougray Scott, Judi Dench and Emma Watson. Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the... |
Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s.... |
Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Actress Hollywood Film Festival The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington.... Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January... – Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award Pending - Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead The Film Independent's Spirit Award for Best Female Lead is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
| 2011 | Take This Waltz Take This Waltz (film) Take This Waltz is a Canadian comedy-drama film, released in 2011.The second full length film directed by Sarah Polley, the film's cast includes Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Luke Kirby, Jennifer Podemski, Raoul Bhaneja, Albert Howell, Diane Flacks and Diane D'Aquila.-Film... |
Margot | Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Actress Hollywood Film Festival The Hollywood Film Festival is an annual Film festival which is located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Festival was established in 1997 by Carlos de Abreu and his wife, model Janice Pennington.... |
| 2013 | Oz: The Great and Powerful Oz: The Great and Powerful Oz: the Great and Powerful is an upcoming 2013 fantasy film directed by Sam Raimi for release in 2013. The film, adapted from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is intended as a prequel to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz... |
Glinda the Good Witch | Filming |
External links
- Michelle Williams at People.comPeople (magazine)In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...