Michelle Williams discusses the strain of being a working single mom
Posted on September 9th, 2008 by Hot Momma
Actress Michelle Williams who turns 28 today, hasn’t spoken to the press since her ex-partner Heath Ledger died of a drug overdose back in January. She has coped to some extent by throwing herself into her work. She has shot four films in quick succession since last summer, two of which “Synecdoche, New York” and “Wendy and Lucy,” are due to open this fall. While everyone understands the reasons, her silence could make it awfully tough to promote her upcoming films, especially since they tend to be small productions depending on good press. Which is why, though she opened up to the New York Times over a long lunch at a restaurant near her home in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, about taking a year off from work and her plans.
Confessing to being apprehensive and out of practice, she thought long and hard before answering questions, searching for the right words:
“I want to actually represent how I feel,” she said at one point — but also taking care to avoid unintended disclosures. “It’s a fine line between wanting to be known and understood but also knowing what’s sacred,” she said.
She admitted to feeling the strain of being a working single mom. She reads bedtime stories to Matilda, now nearly 3, in whatever accent she’s practicing — East London for “Incendiary,” Boston for “Shutter Island” — but has had a hard time balancing the immersive demands of acting and the consuming duties of motherhood.
“I used to have all the time in the world to daydream and even just to dream and let your unconscious do some of the work for you,” she said. “Now I’m up at 5 in the morning, and I don’t remember what I dreamed about.”
“I’m going to take a year off. I think I stopped feeling creative a while ago, and I’m just realizing it now. I used to have all the time in the world to daydream and even just to dream and let your unconscious do some of the work for you. Now I’m up at five in the morning and I don’t remember what I dreamed about.”
In addition to spending quality time with three year old Matilda, she wants to pick up a new hobby:
“I want to humble myself in front of a task like embroidery. I like how really physical work can free your mind.”
She is a little resentful that she can no longer experience the city the way she used to. “I feel like that’s been taken away from me,” she said. “I’m worried what people are saying or thinking, or if they’re going to follow me, or if someone is going to pop out of a bush with a camera. I’ve started to shut down, but I also know I can’t let it dictate my life.”
She still finds herself reacting to the tabloid intrusions with bewilderment. (In recent months the talk has turned to a rumored relationship with the filmmaker Spike Jonze.) “It feels so surreal,” she said. “How is this my life? When did it get so out of control?”
She also revealed that when she gets back into the swing of things, she’ll be doing more light-hearted fare:
“When I work again, maybe it should be a comedy. I’ve always had a tendency for darker, more life-life material. I think I had this sense that important things are heavier things. I don’t know if that’s true any more.”
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What ’strain’? She has a full time nanny and she is a millionaire who actually doesn’t HAVE to work if she doesn’t want to. She’s so false and pretentious. During the day when she takes Matilda for a walk the Nanny is always there with her, and during the evening while she is hanging out with her new boyfriend Spike Jonze, the Nanny is with Matilda too. What ’strain’? I wished this silly girl would do us a favor and truly disappear for a few years……but of course, she wants the attention and will do anything to get it.
OMG denise, you must be the most unfeeling, uncaring little b**** in the world!
Michelle and Heath broke up in sept last year, she then lost the love of her life, her ex-fiance in january, she is raising that gorgeous little girl all by herself and on top of all that she has to deal with the media and paparazzi which she has said previously intimidates her, and you think shes being pretentious and false? omg…cant believe what you have written. Im guessing if you had gone through even 1/4 of what she has during the last 12 months you would feel like dissapearing for a while too. and yeah its obvious shes doing it for ATTENTION!???? what the hell. i wish you would do us all a favour and spare us from your sh**pile of a comment and why dont you dissapear forever while your at it? thanks.