Michelle Williams on how Steven Spielberg’s mom ‘redefined’ motherhood
Michelle Williams has said that Steven Spielberg’s mother “redefined what it is to be a mother for who she wants to be” when talking about starring in the director’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.
The 42-year-old actress plays Mitzi Fabelman – a character based on Leah, Spielberg’s mother – in the Oscar-nominated film.
Speaking to The Guardian about the experience that began when 76-year-old Spielberg approached Williams with a request to play the role, the My Week With Marilyn actress said: “I think the way she (Leah) looks at her kids is that it’s just the way she looks at her kids. the first thing that i connect with.
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Michelle Williams and Gabriel LaBelle in a photo shoot for The Fabelmans (Ian West/PA)
“She got on her knees with them, and she considers them the most important thing in the room. Not the dishes, not the vacuuming, not the mundane everyday life we all get so caught up in and overwhelmed with.”
Williams, who is best known for her starring role in the teen drama series Dawson’s Creek, added: “She’s redefined what it’s like to be a mother depending on who she wants to be.
“She doesn’t let time tell her how to behave. She created her own culture in her family, and then her children went on to create their own culture in the wider world, because it started at home. of them.”
The film, starring Gabriel LaBelle and Paul Dano, won Spielberg’s Best Director award at the 80th Golden Globe Awards earlier this month.
The Fabelmans tells the story of aspiring 16-year-old filmmaker Sammy Fabelman, played by LaBelle, featuring Williams as his mother Mitzi and Dano, 38, as his father, Burt.
The film chronicles Spielberg’s early years, with the official synopsis describing it as a coming-of-age story about “a young man’s discovery of a broken family secret and the discovery of the strength of movies helps us see the truth about each other and ourselves.”
As an actress and mother, Williams also reflects on the advancement of women in Hollywood – something she said was evident during the filming of The Fabelmans.
“I do not possess any grace or composure, nor do my contemporaries. I grew up in the 80s. I wasn’t included in young women myself. And now it is,” she said.
She added: “I see that in my daughter and I can’t take my eyes off her. It was a glorious miracle witnessed that I never thought I would witness in my life.”
Williams is the mother of 17-year-old Matilda, whom she had with late actor Heath Ledger and shares two young children with husband, director Thomas Kail – whom she married in 2020.
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