In the most recent issue of GQ, Golden Globe winning actress Michelle Williams talks about her relationship with Heath Ledger and how his death almost caused her to quit acting.

Williams and Ledger were engaged before the actor’s death in 2008 and had a daughter together. Williams thanked her daughter, Matilda, in her acceptance speech on Sunday night and revealed to the magazine that she almost quit acting in order to protect her.

Williams said that the media hounded her after Heath Ledger’s death. The “My Week With Marilyn” actress told GQ:

“I felt like I was going crazy. It was too much… I just felt trapped. And it’s not just me — there’s somebody else who I’m trying to protect, and I can’t. I can’t make it stop, I can’t make it go away. Trying to find ways to explain it or shield her from it. It’s like you’re trying to go about your life, and make dinner…but the roof is off of your house, and the walls are falling down.”

Here’s the video of Michelle Williams acceptance speech at the Golden Globes.

The Huffington Post reports that Williams was filming a movie called Mammoth when she learned about Heath’s death. She had also agreed to film Shutter Island with Martin Scorsese. Williams kept her promise, but said that she doesn’t remember much of the shoot.

Williams said:

 “It was horrible… I don’t remember most of it… I’ve got a lot of holes.

But despite all of the pain that Ledger’s early demise caused her, he is still one of her favorite things to think about. When asked if there was still a part of her that wished she was back together with Ledger, she said:

“That would make me way too sad to answer … but it’s also… one of my favorite things to imagine. It’s actually one of my favorite places to visit.”

Are you happy that Michelle Williams decided to keep acting?

Reuniting With Heath Ledger Is My Favorite Fantasy, Says Michelle Williams is a post from: The Inquisitr

Michelle Williams is the latest actress to take on the daunting task of playing Marilyn Monroe,and most critics agree that her performance as the Hollywood icon in “My Week with Marilyn”  is spot on.

Mark Jenkins at the Washington Post writes:

“Williams’s Monroe is more vital than anything else. The actress captures Monroe’s range of emotions and personae, her shifts from vulnerability to brashness.”

Roger Ebert writes:

“What matters is the performance by Michelle Williams. She evokes so many Marilyns, public and private, real and make-believe. We didn’t know Monroe, but we believe she must have been something like this.”

Tom Horgen says that Michelle Williams “disappears so effortlessly” into Marilyn Monroe. Betsy Sharkey writes “Williams is Monroe.”

The movie, which opened the day before Thanksgiving, currently has an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Some critics weren’t a fan of the movie but almost all of them agreed that Michelle Williams performance is award worthy.

Here’s a trailer for “My Week With Marilyn.

Have you seen “My Week With Marilyn?” Were you impressed with Williams’ performance?

“My Week With Marilyn” is based on the book written by Colin Clark, an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier. The book focuses on Clark’s relationship with Marilyn during the production of “The Prince and the Showgirl.”

Michelle Williams will be taking on another famous role in her next film. Williams will play Glinda the good witch in Sam Raimi’s “Oz: The Great and Powerful.”

Do you think Williams, who has already been nominated for two Oscars, will see a statue come her way for her role as Marilyn Monroe?

Michelle Williams Is Marilyn Monroe: Critics Impressed With ‘My Week With Marilyn’ [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

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.

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Michelle Williams isn’t the first actress to dress up like Marilyn Monroe, and she won’t be the last, but she is one of the few to channel the sex symbol on the silver screen. Williams just finished up filming My Week With Marilyn, but before she took off the guise of Marilyn Monroe she posed for a few sexy photos in Vogue.

Williams said that she couldn’t quite get Monroe’s look down by herself for the movie. She tried to gain weight to imitate Monroe’s curvy body, but William’s said that all the weight went straight to her face.

Williams told Vogue:

“Unfortunately, it went right to my face. So at some point it became a question of, ‘Do I want my face to look like Marilyn Monroe’s or my hips?’”

So the 30-year-old Oscar nominated actress decided to use padding to push out her hips, but that doesn’t mean that Williams didn’t work hard to achieve Marilyn’s look.

Williams said:

“It felt like being reborn. It felt like breaking my body and remaking it in her image, learning how she walked and talked and held her head. None of that existed in my physical memory, and I knew I needed as much time as possible to make it part of me.”

What do you think about Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe? Do you think she can she pull off playing the famous sex symbol?

My Week With Marilyn will hit theaters this November. Will you be in the theaters to watch the latest re-invention of Marilyn?

Michelle Williams Poses As Marilyn Monroe is a post from: The Inquisitr

My Week with Marilyn

Directed by Simon Curtis, the highly anticipated film is based on a week that writer Colin Clark – played by Eddie Redmayne – worked as an assistant with Monroe during her filming of The Prince and the Showgirl in the United Kingdom in the early summer of 1956.

“After seeing Marilyn Monroe so often portrayed in films as a caricature, it is a pleasure to see this complex personality and unique on-screen presence portrayed so well by such a talented actress as Michelle Williams,” says NYFF selection committee chief Richard Peña.

Dougray Scott also stars in the film as Monroe’s husband, playwright Arthur Miller, while Dame Judi Dench, Emma Watson and Dominic Cooper round out the movie’s cast.

Following its 2011 NY Film Festival premiere, My Week with Marilyn will be released in theaters on November 4th.

The festival, which begins on September 30th and goes through October 16th, will also feature a special screening of the digitally-restored version of William Wyler’s 1959 epic Ben-Hur.

In addition to the two aforementioned movies, the NY Film Festival will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Japan’s Nikkatsu Films with screenings of 36 of the legendary studio’s films, two of which include Kon Ickhkawaa’s “The Burmese Harp” and Masahiro Makinoa’s “Singing Love Birds.”

Via Reuters

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Heather Ledger’s former wife and actress Michelle Williams, and her new love, director Spike Jonze, might be set to take their relationship to the next level, according to at least one tabloid.

“They’re in love and absolutely thrilled with each other,” a source told Star Magazine. “They don’t see why they should wait much longer.”

“Spike loves being with Matilda,” added the source. “He’s teaching her to skateboard and to ride a bike. He never makes Michelle feel like taking care of her is a burden, because he truly thinks of them all as a family.”

The pair met on the set of Synecdoche in October 2008, and started dating shortly there after.

(via PopCrunch)

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She stated that Ledger’s role as Joker in The Dark Knight was a role he loved, and she’s “bursting with pride” about his recent accolades.

“It is such a fantastic and wonderful legacy for his daughter. Matilda will have so many people who will be able to speak to her about her father’s abilities and [the] respect he had in the industry. That is such a wonderful legacy to leave,” she told the mag.

Bell heard about the win as she was getting on a flight in Australia, and she admitted that the news was emotional and that there were “a few tears.”

Heath Ledger’s Golden Globe Trophy Will Go To Daughter Matilda is a post from: The Inquisitr

The $10,000 scholarship will allow one emerging Australian actor to pursue a career in the United States. Australians in Film board vice president Paula Paizes stated that “[AIF] received a staggering number of applications, and the caliber of applicants is extremely high. My fellow judges and I have our work cut out for us over the coming month.” 

Michelle Williams is also a benefactor of the fund, which was conceived to honor the memory of Heath Ledger. In addition to this notable dedication supported by colleagues and friends, Christian Bale honored Ledger while on the podium of the People’s Choice Awards just yesterday, saying “On behalf of all of the cast from the movie, thank you very much to the fans. Here’s to Heath.” The Dark Knight scooped up all five awards for which it was nominated, including Favorite Superhero, Favorite Onscreen Match-Up (Bale and Ledger), Favorite Cast, Favorite Movie, and Favorite Action Movie.

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Heath Ledger is back, and apparently haunting ex-Michelle Williams.

Williams is reported to have made the claim on the set of her new movie “Shutter Island.”

“Stunned” co-workers say Michelle claims to have seen Heath’s ghost twice, and that she was “scared half to death” during the first haunting. She claims to have been woken in the night by a series of eerie bumps, and realized furniture in her bedroom was being moved around.

According to the always reliable National Enquirer she caught a glance of a shadowy figure, which she claims was Heath, although she was 100% sure until she saw his ghost the second time.

The second visit apparently included Heath having a chat, and apologizing for not being able to help raise daughter Matilda.

Rate this with a bucket load of salt.

Heath Ledger said to be haunting Michelle Williams is a post from: The Inquisitr

Michelle Williams has revealed details about her grieving process for late ex-husband Heath Ledger. This is what sucks about promoting your current projects: people invariably start asking you personal questions, and you can’t dodge them because you don’t want to put people off what you’re pimping (in this case, Synecdoche, New York and Wendy and Lucy). I feel bad for her for more than one reason:

“It’s so sad. I guess it’s always changing. What else can I say? I just wake up each day in a slightly different place—grief is like a moving river, so that’s what I mean by ‘it’s always changing’. It’s a strange thing to say because I’m at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse. It’s just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone. In some ways it gets worse. That’s what I would say.”

Since Michelle’s threatened to stay out of the spotlight forever (thanks to the paparazzi’s intrusion), let’s hope she keeps an even keel and keeps making that serious work on which she seems to thrive.

Michelle Williams Talks About Heath Ledger is a post from: The Inquisitr