Michelle - I'm hooked on trying out things that I'm not sure I'm able to do

Award-winning actress, Michelle Williams, is once again creating a buzz in her role in Manchester By The Sea. Here, she talks about the fi lm, taking risks and what motherhood means to her.

Somewhere along the way, actress Michelle Williams’s career underwent a startling transformation. Initially featuring in glossy adolescent fare like Halloween H20, bubblegum politico drama, Dick, and cult classic, Prozac Nation, she went on to land a starring role in Ang Lee’s Oscar-winner, Brokeback Mountain, earning her fi rst Academy Award nomination [one of three since] and that was that – suddenly the pixie-featured girl from Montana was a force to be reckoned with.

She scooped parts with famed director Martin Scorsese [Shutter Island], Derek Cianfrance [Blue Valentine] and in Simon Curtis’s critically acclaimed My Week With Marilyn. Today, we meet to discuss her role in Manchester By The Sea, the long-awaited comeback from writer-director Kenneth Lonergan.Williams co-stars with Casey Affleck in this grief-laden tragedy about loss and redemption, which has already picked up six Bafta nominations and a Golden Globe win for best actor.

But for many of us, we fell in love with Williams as the feisty heroine, Jen Lindley, in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek. Is she aware how important that role remains for a lot of people? ‘I think for a certain generation, Dawson’s Creek was a kind of milestone they grew up with in their developmental years, alongside all of us, and it’s really special.’

Relentless questions of a Creek comeback do raise a smile for the 36-year-old. ‘My character died in the end, so I don’t know how that’s going to work!’