With ‘Dying for Sex,' Michelle Williams proves her comedy chops are no laughing matter
'I'm just so proud of all the women!' Williams lifts her fists up and shakes them with enthusiasm. She starts to talk about how thrilled she is with the FX series being represented so broadly — it scored nine nominations, including acting, writing, directing and limited series — but she cuts herself off again to repeat in her sports announcer voice: 'All the women!'
The 44-year-old actor, who is chatting with me on a video call from her upstate New York home, her hair tied back, sporting a massive straw sun hat and denim overalls, will come back to the importance of female friendship again and again in the course of our conversation. It's what initially drew her to 'Dying for Sex.' Based on the story of real-life best friends Molly Kochan and Nikki Boyer, who described how they navigated the end of Molly's life as she died from Stage 4 breast cancer in a hit podcast, the series depicts Molly leaving her husband in order to explore her intimate desires while managing the trauma of childhood sexual abuse.
Williams said she appreciated how the series explores allowing women to experience pleasure without shame. But above all, she was moved by the platonic love story between Nikki and Molly.
'I wanted to say something about how passionate [nonromantic] love can be between two women. I really wanted to embody that, because for me the women who — I don't want to cry,' says Williams, tearing up as she refers to her closest friends, among them actor Busy Philipps. 'Those have been the abiding loves of my life.'
'This relationship goes as deep as any relationship possibly can,' as 'Dying for Sex' co-writer Kim Rosenstock describes the bond between Molly and Nikki, played in the series by Jenny Slate. 'Letting somebody into your final moments is this incredible act of trust and love.'
Given that pain and loss are inherent to the story, Williams also was grateful for the project's 'unstoppable sense of humor,' where absurdism and slapstick sit effortlessly alongside fear and grief. Though she often has people telling her she focuses on serious projects, in truth Williams likes to balance out her work between comedy and drama. (She's set to swing the pendulum back this fall when she stars in an off-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's 'Anna Christie' directed by her husband, 'Hamilton' Tony winner Thomas Kail.) 'I really like to laugh, so I wanted that very, very much,' says Williams. 'My best friend recently lost another of her best friends to cancer, and she would tell me about the conversations they would have cheek to cheek lying in a hospital bed and how in those moments they found the thing to point at and laugh about, so [the series] felt very true to me.'
Williams herself is quick to express a range of emotions, at times shedding tears about people experiencing grief, at others laughing about the diaper changes that have come with welcoming her third child, now 5 months old. At one point I ask her what it was like meeting the other Michelle Williams at 'Death Becomes Her' and she quips, 'That was long awaited — I don't know why they were trying to keep us apart.'
Rosenstock describes Williams as a 'joyful, comedic person in her own very unique way': 'She's the first person to laugh when a joke is actually really good,' says Rosenstock. 'She doesn't laugh if the joke isn't good.'
Rosenstock remembers how she and co-creator Liz Meriwether initially wrote alternative jokes for most of the cast but didn't feel like they could 'alt Michelle Williams.' When Williams noticed the co-writers shouting out extra jokes to the other cast members, she asked where hers were. 'She was like, 'Why are you holding back? Give me the jokes,'' laughs Rosenstock.
Indeed, it was their concern that the subject matter would be a hard sell for audiences — and their trust that Williams had just the range for the role — that led Rosenstock and Meriwether to their lead.
'Does anyone want to turn on their television and watch a woman who's dying, even if she's having lots of interesting sex?' said Rosenstock. 'We knew the only way an audience would go on this journey is if they fell in love with Molly. We needed somebody who they don't want to look away from. Every moment of watching Michelle work was a 'pinch me' moment.'
As our conversation comes to a close, I ask Williams about projects from the beginning of her career. Did Williams know her former 'Dawson's Creek' co-stars Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson were starring in a romantic movie trilogy, written and directed by Holmes?
Williams had heard about the project but says she hadn't realized it was already filming. Would she consider a cameo in it? 'We have a group thread,' says Williams. 'I'll drop it in the chat.'
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of 'Brokeback Mountain,' in which Williams co-starred opposite her late partner Heath Ledger. The film also led to Williams' first Academy Award nomination, so I ask her what the anniversary means to her.
'It means my daughter is turning 20,' Williams says softly, referring to her and Ledger's daughter, Matilda. 'So it means everything.'
Williams has confronted her own share of grief and says what she appreciated most about making 'Dying for Sex' was how both the audience and the people working on the series were so affected by Molly and Nikki's story.
'With material like this, everybody comes to it with their own personal experiences,' says Williams. 'You come as a sexual abuse survivor, as a cancer survivor, as somebody who is grieving a loss, as a best friend.'
She tears up again as she remembers hearing from someone who was taking care of their friend in hospice, and the duo watched the series together.
'They sent us a picture of these two friends smiling, watching our show,' says Williams, her voice cracking. 'I just thought, 'That's beyond my wildest imagination of where this show could go.''
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