Michelle Williams Wants to Quit Acting, Do Laundry Instead

At 31, Michelle Williams has been through a lot in her life and career.

The actress shot to fame in the late 90’s as the slightly wild Jen, the romantic rival to Katie Holmes’ Joey on the seminal teen drama Dawson’s Creek. Holmes went on to marry Tom Cruise and become a Scientologist and mom to daughter Suri, and Williams took up with Heath Ledger, moving to Brooklyn and having a daughter, Matilda, with the actor.

Williams and Ledger broke it off, and not too long after, the latter was found dead of an inadvisable drug cocktail in his SoHo apartment. Since then, Williams has raised Matilda alone, working regularly. If you’re intimately familiar with the challenges a single, working mom faces, it’s probably not a surprise that even famous, wealthy celebrities dream about running away from it all and starting a new life.

In a recent interview, Williams talks about her fantasies of a different, less high-profile life- perhaps in a laundromat or as a cook:

“I often dream of quitting acting. Walking away and becoming a laundress or a sous chef, or maybe writing other people’s love letters for a living… Clearly, I don’t like to be in charge. And thinking of quitting is just keeping going in disguise.”

Williams also admits to a bit of apprehension about success:

“When you have options, anything is bearable. It’s when a situation is inescapable that it becomes hell… It seems to me that as soon as you get good at something, it is a sure sign that it is about to walk out of your life because it ceases to hold your mind and creative energy hostage.”

The actress is currently working on a Wizard of Oz redux with James Franco and Mila Kunis.