‘I Needed to Stand Up and Deliver:’ Michelle Williams Goes All in on Spielberg, Pay Equity and the Press
variety.comMichelle Williams doesn’t quite know how to describe it.There’s just this thing that comes over her when she’s on a movie set, granting her a transportive ability to shape-shift and access untapped reservoirs of emotion somewhere between the time a director yells “action” and “cut.”“Everything opens up,” she says. “And I’ve found that the more I practice acting, the better I can navigate this kind of dream space.
It’s a space where you don’t really exist. There’s no beginning, there’s no end. You’re in your unconscious.”Whatever she’s tapping into, it seems to be working.
It enabled her to plumb the depths of despair as the grieving mother in “Manchester by the Sea,” and summit the heights of absurdity as the Goop-ified cosmetics CEO in “I Feel Pretty.” And it’s on display in every frame of her newest film, “Showing Up,” a low-budget drama in which Williams channels a tightly wound artist named Lizzie, who is roiling with resentment and frustration while waiting for the muse to appear. “She’s game for anything.
That’s the main thing. That’s what makes it fun,” says Kelly Reichardt, the director of “Showing Up,” and Williams’ most frequent collaborator.The two are heading to the Cannes Film Festival, where “Showing Up” will debut as one of the only female-directed movies this year to play in competition.Over the course of Williams’ career, Reichardt is the one filmmaker who has proved to be the most adept at accessing the magic of Michelle.
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