Michelle Williams Says She Doesn't Watch Her Own Movies: Makes Me 'Happier and Maybe Healthier'

Michelle Williams said the last movie she starred in that she has seen was 2010's Meek's Cutoff

Michelle Williams attends the 2022 AFI Fest - "The Fabelmans" Closing Night Gala Premiere
Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Michelle Williams hasn't seen The Fabelmans — or any of the dozen-plus movies she has appeared in over the last decade.

In an interview with The New York Times published Wednesday, Williams, 42, mentioned that she still has not seen Steven Spielberg's autobiographical movie, in which she stars as a fictional version of 76-year-old Spielberg's mother.

"I'm not able to watch my own work," the actress said. "I think the last thing I saw was Meek's Cutoff in a theater with my daughter, so it's been about a decade."

Meek's Cutoff released in 2010, so Williams has not seen any of the some 15 movies she has appeared in over the last 13 years, which includes her Academy Award-nominated performances in 2011's My Week with Marilyn and 2016's Manchester By the Sea.

"When I'm working on something, I feel so completely inside of it, and when I switch to an audience member, it alters my experience — and the experience is ultimately what I'm in it for," Williams told The Times when asked why she chooses not to watch her own movies.

The actress went on to explain that she "can't seem to go back and forth between the two ways to be involved in storytelling," though she said she "would like to be strong enough and capable of watching myself" in order to review her technique in each performance.

Michelle Williams
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute

"I've tried to do that, but I'm getting internal bounce-back," Williams told the outlet. "I'm happier and maybe healthier just staying in my personal experience of playing these women."

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Asked whether her tendency to avoid her own movies affected her when she wrapping filming The Fabelmans, Williams said she "grieved like somebody had actually died" during her last day on set.

"I shocked myself by how grief-stricken I was to say goodbye to the woman that I had inhabited and the relationships that I had with these other characters," the actress added of wrapping her role as Mitzi Fabelman. "I still miss being her and having that spirit coursing through mine, so it's nice to remember her and the urgency of that period of filming."

Elsewhere in the interview, Williams, who is nominated for a Golden Globe for best actress in a drama for her role in The Fabelmans in the upcoming awards ceremony, praised her character as "an artist in every fingertip."

"There was creativity in every aspect of her life, from how she played with the children to how she dressed herself and cut her hair," she told The Times.

The Fabelmans received five total nominations for the Golden Globes, including nods for best picture (drama), best director, best screenplay and best original score.

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