Michelle Williams complains living with Ryan Gosling was ‘horrible' when filming ‘Blue Valentine'
It was no la la land.
For Michelle Williams, living with Ryan Gosling while filming the 2010 drama 'Blue Valentine' wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
'We shot the first part where they're young and in love and everything is going really well and then we took a two-week break and we lived together. Office hours, baby, like, 9 to 5. Professional situation,' the actress, 44, said on Monday's episode of Dax Shepard's 'Armchair Expert' podcast.
Advertisement
'So we did these improvisations during the day to, honestly, find out ways to annoy each other and to destroy this thing that we had made.'
7 Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams attend the 'Blue Valentine' premiere during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.
Getty Images
Williams revealed production didn't want a break from filming, but she and Gosling, 44, were 'having such a hard time letting go of the thing we loved.'
Advertisement
The film's director, Derek Cianfrance, would pop into the shared living space and leave them with a 'scenario' in hopes of Williams and Gosling furthering their estrangement.
Williams reminisced on when Cianfrance, 51, would come back and say: 'After you've had this frustrating day, now you're going to go take your daughter to the amusement park and try and have a good time.'
7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in 'Blue Valentine.'
©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in the 2010 romance drama.
©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
Advertisement
As she put it, 'It was fun.'
'Try selling that to a producer,' Williams teased about the freedom she and Gosling had to build out their characters and relationship.
The pair went as far as to burn their characters' wedding photos.
7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling as Cindy and Dean.
©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
Advertisement
'We learned how to annoy each other. It was horrible,' the 'Dying for Sex' star recalled. 'I don't want to give you reasons to hate me. We were having such a good time. The party has to be over so soon?'
'You don't have to hate me, because now I hate me,' she stated about how the tables turned during filming. 'I'm annoying. We [were] calling forth all our worst qualities!'
'Blue Valentine' followed Cindy (Williams) and Dean (Gosling) as a couple whose relationship goes downhill after falling in love in their 20s.
7 Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling as Cindy and Dean in 'Blue Valentine.'
©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
Williams earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal of Cindy but ultimately lost to Natalie Portman in 'Black Swan.'
Gosling, meanwhile, got candid about being fully immersed in the role back in 2010 while talking to NPR.
'During the month, we tried to dismantle this thing that we had been building,' the 'Barbie' alum told 'Fresh Air' contributor Dave Davies at the time. '[Originally,] we all worked really hard to create this love story portion, when they're falling in love. We wanted it to feel genuine and real and true. And we spent all of this time building it up, and then we had to tear it down.'
7 2010's 'Blue Valentine.'
©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection
Advertisement
Touching on just how realistic the actors got, Gosling confessed, 'We also celebrated fake Christmas and put up Christmas trees, and baked birthday cakes and bought birthday presents, and went to Sears.'
'We fought all day, and then we'd have to take [our characters' daughter] Faith to the family fun park … whatever we could do to create real memories, so when it came time to shoot the [last] part of the film, we were drawing on real memories.'
For 'The Fall Guy' actor, making 'Blue Valentine' was the first time he forgot he was in the middle of creating art.
7 Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.
Getty Images
Advertisement
'Most movies, you have to try and forget you're making a movie, because there are trailers and booms and lights and marks, and it's everywhere,' said Gosling. 'And with this, you're trying to remember that it is a movie, because it's so easy to get lost in it.'
Although the film was muddled with controversy as it received an NC-17 rating at first – something that confused the Hollywood vet. The NC-17 means a movie is deemed too mature for children under 17 years old and is only suitable for adult audiences.
'I was very confused. It seems like I don't really understand this rating system,' Gosling shared at the time. 'I was told it's because my character performs oral sex on his wife, and I thought, 'There's plenty of movies with men receiving oral sex from women with R ratings.' It seemed like a double standard. On top of that, it seemed like there are horror movies that are like torture-porn that are R rated. What a lot of people don't understand about the NC-17, which I didn't understand, is that you can't show it in major theater chains — and you can't even air spots for your film on television. It really stigmatizes the movie.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Magnolia Pictures Acquires U.S. Rights To ‘It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley,' Amy Berg's Documentary On Late Ethereal-Voiced Musician
EXCLUSIVE: Magnolia Pictures has landed U.S. rights to It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg's portrait of the late musician who developed an adoring fan base before his untimely death at the age of 30. Magnolia plans to release the film theatrically (available in Dolby Atmos) on August 8. The documentary, which enjoys a 100 percent critics approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, will premiere on HBO and stream on HBO Max this winter, as part of the Music Box series created by Bill Simmons. More from Deadline Director Amy Berg On Her Jeff Buckley Documentary: Late Singer-Songwriter 'Brought So Much Love And Authenticity To His Music' – Sundance Studio 'The Case Against Adnan Syed' Director Amy Berg Strikes First-Look Deal With Fremantle New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Docu 'Prime Minister' Acquired By Magnolia, HBO Docu Films & CNN Films After Prize-Winning Sundance Bow 'Told through never-before-seen footage from Buckley's archives and intimate accounts from his mother Mary Guibert, former partners Rebecca Moore and Joan Wasser, Jeff's former bandmates, including Michael Tighe and Parker Kindred, and luminaries like Ben Harper and Aimee Mann, It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley illuminates one of modern music's most influential and enigmatic figures,' notes a release. 'His only studio album, Grace, was released to astounding reviews and challenged conventional ideas of genre and gender. His intimate and influential cover of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' further catapulted him to fame. Still, under pressure to produce his second album, he retreated to Memphis to escape the spotlight and the ever-growing glare of the public eye. In a tragic accident, Buckley drowned in the Wolf River in Memphis in 1997, leaving behind an unfinished second album and a legion of devastated family, friends and fans.' Magnolia Pictures co-CEOs Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley said in a statement, 'With only one studio album, Jeff Buckley became a legend. Amy Berg has captured his brilliance and complexity in this incandescent film that no true fan can miss.' Berg's credits include the Academy Award-nominated Deliver Us From Evil (2006); West of Memphis (2012); Prophet's Prey (2015); the Emmy-nominated docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed (2019), and Janis: Little Girl Blue, her 2015 documentary about iconic singer Janis Joplin. 'I've spent practically my entire career trying to make this film which takes a very intimate look at one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time,' Berg commented. 'I'm so excited Magnolia and HBO have come onboard to share this film with the world and give old fans and new audiences a chance to experience Jeff from this unique vantage point. I couldn't imagine a better team to roll this into the world!' A Topic Studios and Fremantle Film, It's Never Over: Jeff Buckley is produced by Ryan Heller (A Real Pain), Christine Connor (Nuclear Family), Mandy Chang (The Mona Lisa Curse), Matthew Roozen (A Mouthful Of Air), Jennie Bedusa (The Space Within) and Amy Berg. Executive producers are Mary Guibert, Alison Raykovich, Brian A. Kates, Michael Bloom, Jennifer Westin, Maria Zuckerman, Brad Pitt, and Ian Stratford. 'Working with Amy on this labor of love has been a gift,' said Topic Studios' Ryan Heller and Christine Connor. 'And we are delighted that our friends at Magnolia and HBO are joining us to help ensure that Jeff's remarkable story reaches the widest possible audience.' Mark Reynolds, Global Head of Documentaries & Factual, Fremantle, noted, 'We are delighted to have partnered with Amy Berg and Topic Studios on this deeply human and beautifully made film – with such intimate recollections of an artist who continues to inspire – honoring Jeff's legacy with the care and reverence it deserves. We're equally excited to be collaborating with Magnolia as our North American distributor to help share this powerful story with audiences.' The acquisition deal was negotiated by Magnolia Pictures SVP of Acquisitions John Von Thaden, with Submarine's Josh Braun, Dan Braun and Matt Burke on behalf of the filmmakers. It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to screen at festivals around the world including CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, the Sydney Film Festival in Australia, the Provincetown International Film Festival and Nantucket Film Festival – both in Massachusetts. Musician Ben Harper, who as noted above appears in the documentary, became friends with Buckley after they met at a rock festival in France. In an interview with Deadline at Sundance, he told us about the power of Buckley's voice. 'You just hadn't heard anything like it until he came along. It was as singular an instrument as has existed in the world of sound. As powerful and raw, it was equally as vulnerable and fragile. And to have those two counterpoints all within the same instrument was just something unheard of… To be that raw, but that elegant at the same time, and to be that powerful yet that fragile at the same time was just shocking.' At Sundance, Berg shared more about her long effort to make the Buckley documentary. 'I finally met up with Mary [Guibert, Jeff Buckley's mom] in 2010, but she didn't give me the rights for another nine years,' she told Deadline. 'But every time I finished a film, I would reach out to Mary. She did share the archive with me back then, and I was blown away by the voicemail messages and the DAT recordings and his candor, and I just kept at it. I always wanted to tell a love story about Jeff because he brought so much love and authenticity to his music. So, I chose people that had a real deep connection with him to be in the film. It's a love story that simply transcends time. ' Best of Deadline List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Michelle Obama: Our daughters are pushing away from us
Michelle Obama has said her daughters are trying to 'push away' from her and her husband to forge their own paths separate from their famous parents. The former first lady said that her daughters Malia and Sasha tried to distance themselves from her and her husband, the former US president Barack Obama, particularly during their teenage years. 'Our daughters are 26 and 23, they are young adult women. But they definitely went through a period in their teen years… it was the 'push away,'' Mrs Obama said during an episode of Kate Hudson's Sibling Revelry podcast. Mrs Obama said her two children are continuing to attempt to chart their own course in order to differentiate themselves from their parents. 'They're still doing that, and you guys know this of children with parents who are known,' she said. Addressing her elder daughter's decision to drop her surname in her professional life, Mrs Obama said: 'It is very important for my kids to feel like they've earned what they are getting in the world, and they don't want people to assume that they don't work hard, that they're just naturally, just handed things. 'They're very sensitive to that - they want to be their own people,' she added. For Malia's debut film, the Heart, which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival, the 26-year-old writer and director went by her first and middle names, Malia Ann, in the director's credits. 'Malia, who started in film, I mean, her first project – she took off her last name, and we were like, they're still going to know it's you, Malia,' Mrs Obama said of the decision. 'But we respected the fact that she's trying to make her way.' She added that as their children have grown up, they have come to terms with the decisions she and her husband made as parents in the public eye. 'As they're older, I think they are embracing our parenting principles… They have a clearer understanding of why we did a lot of what we did,' she said. 'They understand us as full human beings now, in the same way that I think I discovered that about my parents when I went away to college.' Her comments echoed the former president, who recently joked on an episode of The Pivot podcast that their children were 'stubborn' and would 'go out of their way to not try to leverage' their famous family name. 'On the credits, it said Malia Ann. I was like, 'You do know they'll know who you are?'' Mr Obama said. 'And she's all like, 'You know what? I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.'' Mrs Obama has in recent months begun to speak more openly about the challenges of her time in the White House. She announced on Thursday that she will be releasing a new book, The Look, in November focusing on her most famous outfits and her efforts to 'reclaim' her story. 'During our family's time in the White House, the way I looked was constantly being dissected — what I wore, how my hair was styled,' she captioned the post on Instagram. 'For a while now, I've been wanting to reclaim more of that story, to share it in my own way.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
31 minutes ago
Jury deliberations begin in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes retrial
NEW YORK -- Jurors started deliberating Thursday in Harvey Weinstein 's New York sex crimes retrial, tasked with deciding — again — a case that encapsulated the #MeToo movement. The seven-woman, five-man jury is considering two counts of criminal sex act and one count of rape, each relating to a different accuser and a different date. In this case, the criminal sex act charge is the higher-degree felony. The jury got the case after a juror was replaced by an alternate after she couldn't come to court due to illness. Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty. Nearly eight years ago, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against the Oscar-winning movie producer propelled the #MeToo movement. Some of those accusations later generated criminal charges and convictions in New York and California. The New York conviction from 2020 was subsequently overturned, leading to the retrial before a new jury and a different judge. Jurors heard more than five weeks of testimony, including lengthy and sometimes fiery questioning of Weinstein's three accusers in the case. Jessica Mann said he raped her in 2013, when she was trying to build an acting career. Miriam Haley accused him of forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006, when she was looking for work in entertainment production. Kaja Sokola, who wasn't involved in Weinstein's first trial, told jurors that he forced oral sex on her, too, during 2006. At the time, she was a teenage fashion model trying to break into acting. 'They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant's world, the entertainment industry,' prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors in her closing argument Tuesday. She contended that Weinstein let the women think he was interested in their careers when what actually interested him were their bodies, and "he was going to have their bodies and touch their bodies whether they wanted him to or not.' Weinstein chose not to testify. His defense called other witnesses, including some former friends of Sokola's and Mann's. Weinstein's attorneys argued that all three accusers consented to Weinstein's advances because they wanted help with their Hollywood aims. All three stayed on friendly terms with him afterward, a point the defense emphasized. 'It's transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him,' defense lawyer Arthur Aidala said in his summation Tuesday. The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.
