Michelle Williams might have nabbed an Academy Award nomination for “Blue Valentine,” but memories of her experience making the film were less than stellar.
Appearing on the “Armchair Expert” podcast this week, Williams recalled living together with co-star Ryan Gosling at the suggestion of the film’s writer-director, Derek Cianfrance, in order to effectively capture the breakdown of their characters’ relationship.
“We took a break in the filming. We shot the first part when they’re young and in love and everything’s going really well,” Williams explained. “And then we took a two-week break, and we lived together ― office hours, baby, like 9-to-5.”
Clarifying that cohabitating with Gosling was strictly a “professional situation,” she added: “So we did these improvisations during the day, honestly, to figure out ways to annoy each other and to destroy this thing that we had made.”
Released in 2010, “Blue Valentine” follows working-class couple Dean and Cindy (played by Gosling and Williams, respectively) during a rough patch in their marriage. The early days of Dean and Cindy’s relationship are recalled in emotional flashbacks as the film taps into darker themes, such as unwanted pregnancy and spousal abuse.
In hindsight, Williams felt living with Gosling was a “horrible” experience ― though not because of any specific fault of her co-star ― and wouldn’t advise other actors to go to similar lengths for a role.
“I don’t know if anybody could work like that again, because you’ve got a crew that’s on hold. You’re paying people,” she said. “I mean, it’s such a small movie, so low budget and a small crew, but you’re taking a big down period in the middle of the thing, and to what end?”
Williams, who currently stars in Hulu’s “Dying for Sex,” prefers to keep her professional duties as an actor at a clearer distance from her private life these days.
“A hard day at work for me now, I feel it and I go through it, but I definitely know that I get to go home,” she said. “I can really close the door on it.”
In the 15 years since the release of “Blue Valentine,” Cianfrance has gone on to write and direct a number of acclaimed projects, including the 2020 HBO miniseries “I Know This Much Is True,” starring Mark Ruffalo.
Speaking to IndieWire in 2024, Cianfrance recalled how he’d completed a total of 66 drafts of the “Blue Valentine” script before getting the film into production after many unexpected delays, with Gosling and Williams as the film’s stars.
“What was a curse for so many years became a blessing. [That film] was a lightning strike. It only happens one time,” he said. “The moments where Ryan was in his life, where Michelle was in her life, where I was in my life, where the entire crew was, there was an alchemy that happened.”
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Listen to Michelle Williams’ “Armchair Expert” interview here. Her comments on “Blue Valentine” begin around the 54:55 mark.
