Michelle Williams booking

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Actress Michelle Williams got her start as a teen TV idol on the show Dawson’s Creek. The performer
emancipated herself from her family at the age of 16 in order to advance her career in Hollywood. The
move paid off, and roles in films such as Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine and My Week with
Marilyn made Williams a critically acclaimed performer.
Michelle Williams was born on September 9, 1980 in Kalispell, Montana, to Carla and Larry Williams.
The family, which included Williams’ younger sister, Paige, moved to San Diego when Williams was 9.
Many of Williams’ Southern California classmates were pursuing small acting jobs, such as
commercials, and Williams decided that she, too, wanted to act. She attended many schools over the
years, including a Christian school, but eventually decided that earning her GED at home would be the
most practical move for her acting career. With a GED, she would be able to be legally emancipated
from her parents, which would make her eligible to work longer hours on set than a minor could. At
age 15, Williams was emancipated. She emphasizes that the move had nothing to do with any trouble
with her family: it was simply to give Williams a better shot at a career, and it soon paid off. Michelle
Williams landed her first major role at 16, as troubled teenager Jen Lindley on the hit teen show
Dawson’s Creek, where she remained from 1998 until 2003. The show made stars out of its teen
leads, but the experience was a mixed one for Williams, who feared being typecast as a “pop tart” and
was already considering what she wanted to do next. “I said to a friend [that] being on Dawson’s Creek
was kind of like being a mobster,” she explained. “You set up a shop selling pizza, but in the back
you’re laundering money. You’re doing one thing in plain sight and secretly plotting something else. I
was plotting my tastes, my interests, my beliefs and hopes for what I could be.”
While on hiatus from filming Dawson’s Creek, Williams lived in New York City and worked toward her
bigger goals. She took parts in a variety of movies, ranging from comedy (Dick, with Kirsten Dunst) to
horror (Halloween H20: 20 Years Later). She found her calling, though, in independent films such as
Me Without You, Prozac Nation and The Station Agent. “I remember when I was 18 and I was offered
this play called Killer Joe, and I was also offered a movie about cheerleaders who carry guns,”
Williams explains. “And Killer Joe was, I don’t know, maybe a 200-seat house, making scale. And the
cheerleader movie was the kind of money that you can live off of for a long time to come. And I
remember seeing the paths diverge. And I remember how easy the choice was. And so to me that
feels like the beginning. That feels like where I began to develop my taste. I did the play, obviously.”
Over the years, Williams has stayed true to her sense of self as an actress, choosing roles carefully.
Michelle Williams’ big break in the film world came in 2005, when she appeared in Ang Lee’s
Brokeback Mountain as the wife of a closeted gay rancher. The film was a critical and financial
success, and Williams was nominated for her first Academy Award for Supporting Actress for the role.
That year was also a year of personal milestones for Williams: she became engaged to Brokeback costar Heath Ledger, and gave birth to their daughter, Mathilda Rose, on October 28th.
Difficulties arose in Williams’ personal life when she and actor Heath Ledger split in the fall of 2007.
Ledger died tragically in 2008 of a prescription drug overdose, and the grieving Williams had to deal
with both her personal mourning for the father of her child and the intrusion of the paparazzi into her
life. “I experienced a lot of loss after his death. I lost my city because of all the paparazzi descending
upon us. I actually lost my journal during that time, oddly enough … Things were just streaming away
from me. I lost my sense of humor. I’m still sort of looking for that.” She later described the year
following his death as a “year of magical thinking … In a strange way, I miss that year, because all
those possibilities that existed then are gone. It didn’t seem unlikely to me that he could walk through a
door or could appear behind a bush.”
Michelle Williams rebounded from her grief by throwing herself into work for a year, releasing four films
in short succession. She went to the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 to promote two films, Charlie
Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York and the critically acclaimed independent film Wendy and Lucy,
from director Kelly Reichardt. She then filmed Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island opposite Leonardo

DiCaprio. In 2010, Williams starred in the relationship drama Blue Valentine opposite Ryan Gosling.
She was again nominated for an Academy Award, this time for Best Actress. In 2011, Williams
appeared in another of Kelly Reichardt’s films, Meek’s Cutoff, playing one of a group of pioneers lost in
the Oregon Territory in 1845. Williams often defines her primary role as a mother, but continues to act
in a variety of films, shifting easily from roles in low-budget independent films to mainstream
productions. One of her most recent triumphs was as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn. Her
portrayal of the late Hollywood sex symbol earned her many glowing reviews and several professional
accolades, including a Golden Globe Award.
Still, Michelle Williams tries not to lose some essential sense of self in her work: “I wanted to work
outside the system, which is why all this fame is a real brain teaser. What am I supposed to do with it?
Can you work the system without it working you?” Thus far, Williams appears to be remarkably
successful at doing so.