Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams’ per­for­mances have estab­lished her as one of Hol­ly­wood’s most sought-after and respect­ed award-win­ning actors. Born in Kalispell, Mon­tana, she began her career star­ring in tele­vi­sion series and obtained her first film role in Daniel Petrie’s com­e­dy Lassie (1994). At the end of the 1990s, she played one of the main female roles in the series Daw­son, then starred in par­al­lel in inde­pen­dent pro­duc­tions such as Andrew Fleming’s Dick (1999), San­dra Goldbacher’s Me With­out You (2000), Tom McCarthy’s The Sta­tion Agent (2003) and Wim Wender’s Land of Plen­ty (2004). 

In 2005, Michelle Williams gained inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion for her role along­side Jake Gyl­len­haal and Heath Ledger in Ang Lee’s Broke­back Moun­tain, which earned her the Crit­ics’ Choice Award for Best Sup­port­ing Actress but also Oscars, Gold­en Globes and BAFTA Awards’ nom­i­na­tions in that same cat­e­go­ry. Three years lat­er, the actress played her first lead­ing role in Kel­ly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, before work­ing togeth­er again with Meek’s Cut­off (2011), Cer­tain Women (2016) and more recent­ly, Show­ing Up, pre­sent­ed in com­pe­ti­tion at the 2022 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val. After star­ring oppo­site Leonar­do DiCaprio in Mar­tin Scorsese’s Shut­ter Island (2010), she co-starred with Ryan Gosling in Derek Cianfrance’s dra­ma Blue Valen­tine and was nom­i­nat­ed for the Oscar for Best Actress in 2011. That same year, the actress played Mar­i­lyn Mon­roe in Simon Cur­tis’ My Week with Mar­i­lyn, which earned her anoth­er Oscar nom­i­na­tion and for which she won the Gold­en Globe for Best Actress in a comedy. 

Michelle Williams then con­tin­ued in inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma and notably starred in Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz (2011), Ken­neth Lonergan’s Man­ches­ter by the Sea (2016), for which she was once again nom­i­nat­ed for the Oscar for Best Sup­port­ing Actress, or Todd Haynes’ Won­der­struck (2017). She was also mov­ing towards Hol­ly­wood pro­duc­tions includ­ing Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Pow­er­ful (2013), Michael Gracey’s The Great­est Show­man (2017) and Rid­ley Scott’s All the Mon­ey in the World (2017). In 2018, she joined the Mar­vel uni­verse in Ruben Fleischer’s Ven­om, then returned to tele­vi­sion the fol­low­ing year with the mini-series Fosse/Verdon, about the roman­tic and cre­ative part­ner­ship between chore­o­g­ra­ph­er Bob Fos­se and Broad­way dancer Gwen Ver­don, which allowed her to win a Gold­en Globe and an Emmy Award for Best Actress. 

On stage, Williams starred in David Harrower’s Olivi­er Award-win­ning Dra­ma “Black­bird” oppo­site Jeff Daniels with Joe Man­tel­lo direct­ing and Scott Rudin pro­duc­ing. Her depic­tion of “Una” gar­nered her a Tony nom­i­na­tion for “Best Per­for­mance by an Actress in a Lead­ing Role in a Play.” She made her Broad­way debut as “Sal­ly Bowles” in the Round­about The­atre Com­pa­ny pro­duc­tion of “Cabaret”. Her pre­vi­ous the­atre cred­its include the Off-Broad­way pro­duc­tions of Mike Leigh’s “Smelling a Rat”, Tra­cy Letts’s “Killer Joe”, and the Williamstown The­atre Fes­ti­val pro­duc­tion of “The Cher­ry Orchard”. 

After reunit­ing with Tom Hardy in Andy Serkis’ Ven­om: Let There Be Car­nage (2021), Michelle Williams was cho­sen by Steven Spiel­berg to play his fic­tion­al moth­er in the semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal film The Fabel­mans (2022). For her nuanced per­for­mance, the actress was once again nom­i­nat­ed for the Oscar for Best Actress and a Gold­en Globe for Best Actress in a dra­ma film.