Michelle Williams spoke candidly about her time making a 2010 indie hit with Ryan Gosling, and she doesn’t think a movie like that could get made today. Gaining early fame in her role as Jen in Dawson’s Creek, Williams would quickly jump to the big screen in movies like Brokeback Mountain. Her work in the aforementioned Ang Lee film scored her an Oscar nomination, and she quickly established herself as one of the most well-rounded stars in Hollywood. It’s Williams’ ability to get lost in a character that’s made her so sought-after, but that process hasn’t always been easy.
While appearing on the Armchair Expert podcast, Williams explained how the preparation methods she used to make 2010’s Blue Valentine wouldn’t be possible today. She shot early scenes of the film alongside co-star Ryan Gosling before they “took a break in filming.“ She explained, “We shot the first part when they’re young and in love…then we took a two-week break, and we lived together.” The point of this exercise was to “figure out ways to annoy each other and to destroy this thing that we had made.”
According to Williams, she and Gosling struggled to film the scenes in which their characters were fighting, so the production took a break. Besides describing the experience as “horrible” because she didn’t want to destroy what they had built together, she noted that it’s highly unusual for a film production. “You’ve got a crew that’s on hold. You’re paying people,” Williams explained, “it’s such a small movie, so, so low budget…but you’re taking a big down period in the middle of the thing.“
Blue Valentine Needed Strong Performances Above All Else
The Break Was Necessary To Make It Seem More Real
As Williams noted, a two-week break in the middle of filming a movie is practically unheard of at any point in history, and films keep a tight schedule for budgetary reasons. Director Derek Cianfrance understood the importance of getting good performances, but with a reported budget of $1 million (via Box Office Mojo), Blue Valentine was walking a thin line already. It obviously worked out in the long run, and the film snagged Williams another Oscar nomination, but it isn’t a process that is likely going to be repeated any time soon.
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8 Facts You Never Knew About Blue Valentine
Blue Valentine is a modern classic and fans can learn a lot more about the movie by looking behind the scenes.
Taking A Two-Week Break Was A Huge Risk
Blue Valentine is certainly one of Michelle Williams’ best movies, and she’s absolutely right when saying that her two-week break likely wouldn’t happen in a modern film. However, I don’t think she went far enough, and it would be more accurate to say that their unusual preparations would be rare at any point in film history. Blue Valentine was an extremely low-budget film, but even huge blockbusters with mega-sized budgets can’t afford to furlough the entire crew while the actors rehearse.
Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are both brilliant actors, and I think Blue Valentine‘s success can be chalked up to their performances and not necessarily to the director. While Williams’ story is an interesting look behind the curtain of how a film is made, the fact that they needed to take the two-week break at all shows a lack of preparation from the director, and they likely could have ironed everything out in rehearsals without needing to stop the production of a film for two weeks.
Blue Valentine
- Release Date
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December 29, 2010
- Runtime
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112 Minutes
- Director
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Derek Cianfrance
- Writers
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Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne