Yahoo Movies How Michelle Williams channeled Steven Spielberg's late mother in The Fabelmans
When EW spoke to Michelle Williams a few days after The Fabelmans' rapturous reception at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, she was enjoying a rare quiet moment with her children. "I've got one sleeping baby on the inside and one sleeping baby on the outside," said the pregnant actor, referring to her toddler son and soon-to-be-born third child. (Williams is also mother to Matilda, 16, her daughter with the late Heath Ledger.) They were accompanied by a sleeping dog, whose human-like snores could be heard over the phone line. "The kids sleep well and it's the dog that keeps us up," she joked.
The blissful family scene seems fitting, given that Williams, 42, is garnering some of the best reviews of her career for playing Mitzi, the fierce matriarch of The Fabelmans, Spielberg's deeply personal autobiographical family drama. Below, Williams talks about unlocking her complicated character, the tension between being a mother and a fully realized woman, and how the cast was obsessed with Crystal, the on-set capuchin monkey who was one of the many objects of Mitzi's affection.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Your character is based on Steven Spielberg's late mother, Leah, so there's some pressure there, I can imagine.
WILLIAMS: He opened his family history to me and he opened his heart to me. And he gave me unlimited access to his experiences with her, his memories of her, his desire, his wishes for her, his relationship with her. He let me get to know her through him. And the more that I knew her, the more I wanted to know her. She was just one of those people whose spirit fills a room. I miss her still. I can't imagine how much he misses her.
Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
He has so much love for his mother, yet she's also a very complicated woman who makes choices that, at the time, would have been vilified. But he finds the humanity in her from the point of view of a son who loved her.
I think what moved me so much from the very first time I read the script was: My God, they let this woman live. They let this woman live in every word of every scene of every page that she is on. She is having a full-blooded human experience. She is not limited to her role as his mother. She is a woman in her own right and that's what just blew me away, was what a feast they had written for her. And that she is allowed these careening passions and emotions without judgment, which I find to be incredibly honest and lifelike. I couldn't believe my eyes at how much she got to express what it felt like for her to be alive from her own point of view. It's from Steven's point of view, it's the movie about him and his childhood, but she's allowed full personhood. She's allowed a full range of expression, even if it's through his lens.
One thing the movie captures really well is that idea of being subsumed by the day-to-day of taking care of children, and the idea of losing yourself because of that.
I think what struck me about her is that she experiences all of these things fully. I don't think that she feels a diminishment in her life because she has so many children. I think she experiences her children fully and individually, and can experience great longing. I don't think it was an either/or situation. I don't think that the children were keeping her from realizing herself. I think she was fully realized as a mother, and I think that she wanted to fully realize herself as a woman. And the two things didn't have to be in conflict with each other. Which is such a trailblazing way for her to have thought and acted at that time.
She maintained a great passion and love for Steven's father. That wasn't the end of their story, either. They found each other later in life. She was just one of those people who could fit it all in. And she could have passionate relationships with her children, with her piano, with her pets, with her clothes, with her husband, with her boyfriend — she could do it all.
Universal Paul Dano and Michelle Williams in 'The Fabelmans'
Speaking of her pets, can you talk about the monkey in the film?
That monkey was incredible. We are still telling stories about that monkey. My God. That monkey's name is Crystal, and Crystal is a mega star, she can do anything. We were all so reverent around the monkey, everybody. When animals or babies are on set, everything just takes this really hushed tone because you don't know what's going to happen, or how they're going to respond, or if they're going to be comfortable. And Crystal could handle anything. She's been in the business for 25 years and you can tell how she feels about herself when she completes one of the tricks that she's learned. She is amazing. She taught my baby how to do a high five.
Your character's relationship to cooking and housekeeping was fraught sometimes.
I think what I really want to take on board is how she didn't do the dishes. What a genius. No dishes, just to tie everything up in a paper tablecloth when you're done with dinner and then get back to the festivities. And she just hated to clean. She just hated to clean. And she figured out how not to clean. Again, that utter lack of convention — that she was inventive enough to come up with the idea and she was brave enough to flaunt it, and empowered enough by her husband to live it.
There's a lot to love, there's a lot to take from it. There's a lot of originality and vivacity in how she raised that family, and that's certainly something that I would like to bring into my own. Who wants to do dishes and who cares what the table looks like? Just care who you're eating with and what the food tastes like.
Was the tablecloth scene an actual move from Steven's mom?
Oh, yeah. Steven would have to be the one to speak to, but I think it's much more than loosely based. I think that's tightly based.
The Fabelmans is in theaters Nov. 11.
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