Michelle Williams on screen and stage

This article is about the filmography of the actress. For the filmography of the singer, see Michelle Williams (singer) § Filmography.

Michelle Williams is gently smiling for the camera.
Williams at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con

American actress Michelle Williams' first screen appearance was at age thirteen in a 1993 episode of the television series Baywatch, and she made her film debut as the love interest of a teenage boy in Lassie (1994).[1][2] She had guest roles in the sitcoms Step by Step and Home Improvement, and played the younger version of Natasha Henstridge's character in the science fiction film Species (1995).[3][4] Greater success came to Williams when played the sexually troubled teenager Jen Lindley in the teen drama series Dawson's Creek (1998–2003).[1][3] In 1999, she made her stage debut with the Tracy Letts-written play Killer Joe.[1]

In the 2000s, Williams eschewed parts in big-budget films in favor of roles with darker themes in independent productions such as Me Without You (2001) and The Station Agent (2003).[5][6] Despite positive reviews, these films were not widely seen.[7][8] This changed in 2005 when Williams played the neglected wife of Heath Ledger's character in Brokeback Mountain, a drama about star-crossed gay lovers, which became a critical and commercial success; Williams gained a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.[9][10][11] Her career did not progress much in the next few years, but Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008), in which she starred as a drifter searching for her missing dog, was critically acclaimed.[7][8][12] Martin Scorsese's thriller Shutter Island (2010), starring Leonardo DiCaprio, in which Williams had a supporting part, became her most widely seen film to that point.[8][11]

Williams received two consecutive Oscar nominations for Best Actress for starring as an unhappily married woman in Blue Valentine (2010) and Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn (2011); she also won a Golden Globe Award for the latter.[13][14][15] She next played Glinda in the commercially successful fantasy feature Oz the Great and Powerful (2013).[16][17] On Broadway, she played Sally Bowles in a revival of the musical Cabaret in 2014, and a sexual abuse survivor in a revival of the play Blackbird in 2016.[18] For the latter, she gained a Tony Award for Best Actress nomination.[19] She earned another Academy Award nomination for playing a grieving mother in Manchester by the Sea (2016).[20] The 2017 musical The Greatest Showman and the 2018 superhero film Venom emerged as two of her highest-grossing releases.[8][21] She returned to television in 2019 to portray Gwen Verdon opposite Sam Rockwell's Bob Fosse in the FX miniseries Fosse/Verdon, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Actress.[22][23] Williams received her fifth Oscar nomination for starring as a troubled mother in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans (2022).[24]

  1. ^ a b c Heath, Chris (January 17, 2012). "Some Like Her Hot". GQ. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  2. ^ Crossan, Ashley (July 22, 2014). "14-Year-Old Michelle Williams is Adorable on the Set of 'Lassie'". Entertainment Tonight. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Teeman, Tim (January 26, 2011). "Michelle Williams is kinda blue". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  4. ^ James, Caryn (July 7, 1995). "Film Review; Singles Bars And Single Half-Aliens". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  5. ^ Lim, Dennis (September 4, 2008). "For Michelle Williams, It's All Personal". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  6. ^ Holden, Stephen (July 5, 2002). "Film Review; Best Friends Who Are Also Worst Enemies Struggle in a Web of Emotions". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  7. ^ a b "Michelle Williams". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d "Michelle Williams Movie Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on May 31, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  9. ^ "List of Academy Award Winners and Nominees". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 19, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  10. ^ Tzioumakis, Yannis (2012). Hollywood's Indies: Classics Divisions, Specialty Labels, and the American Film Market. Edinburgh University Press. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-7486-4012-6. Archived from the original on October 30, 2017.
  11. ^ a b Anthony, Andrew (March 8, 2009). "'I don't want any more paparazzi outside my door'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  12. ^ Knegt, Peter (December 9, 2008). ""I Think I've Come a Long Way": "Wendy and Lucy" Actress Michelle Williams". Indiewire. Archived from the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  13. ^ "The 83rd Academy Awards (2011) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
    "The 84th Academy Awards (2012) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
    Kauffman, Amy (January 15, 2012). "Golden Globes: Michelle Williams best actress in comedy, musical". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  14. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (January 13, 2011). "Blue Valentine – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 11, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  15. ^ Gritten, David (November 5, 2011). "My Week with Marilyn: the true story". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on April 20, 2016. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
  16. ^ "Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on May 1, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  17. ^ Miller, Julie (March 5, 2013). "How Is Michelle Williams's Glinda the Good Witch in Oz the Great and Powerful Different from Billie Burke's Classic?". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  18. ^ Green, Adam (February 5, 2016). "Michelle Williams and Jeff Daniels Bring Blackbird's Unsettling Seduction to Broadway". Vogue. Archived from the original on May 3, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  19. ^ "See Full List of 2016 Tony Award Nominations". Playbill. May 3, 2016. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
  20. ^ Pressberg, Matt (January 24, 2017). "No, Oscar Nominee Michelle Williams Still Hasn't Seen 'Manchester by the Sea'". TheWrap. Archived from the original on October 21, 2017. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  21. ^ "The Greatest Showman (2017)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
  22. ^ Drysdale, Jennifer (February 4, 2019). "Michelle Williams on Why Return to TV in 'Fosse/Verdon' Was a 'Next-Level Degree of Difficulty'". Entertainment Tonight. Archived from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  23. ^ Minutaglio, Rose (September 23, 2019). "Michelle Williams Uses Emmys Acceptance Speech To Call Out Workplace Inequality For Women Of Color". Elle. Archived from the original on September 23, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  24. ^ "Oscar Nominations 2023: The Full List". Variety. January 24, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2023.