By the sea, and 2017s The Greatest Showman. On Broadway in 2014s cabaret and 2016s blackbird. And on TV in the 2019 limited series, Fosse verdon. I'm talking, of course, about Michelle Williams. In 2002, William shined as brightly as ever in Steven Spielberg's autobiographical film, the fable men's, playing mitzi fable men, a thinly disguised version of Spielberg's own mother, the late Leah Adler, opposite Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Gabriel Labelle. Spielberg has said that her performance made him feel like he had his mother back again. And as someone who had the pleasure of meeting his mother at the Milky Way, the west LA kosher restaurant that she ran in her later years, I can totally see why. Williams nails Adler's physical appearance, manner of speaking, and unmistakable joie de vivre. And this season, Williams has already received a special tribute at the Gotham awards and was nominated for the best actress in a drama Golden Globe Award. And she is nominated for the best actress critics choice award with the best actress Oscar nomination likely to follow. Over the course of our conversation at the hotel Bel Air, the 42 year old and I discussed the pros and cons of her years as a child actor, emancipated from her parents, the period of grief that she experienced, following sudden death of Heath Ledger, her costar in Brokeback Mountain and the father of her oldest child in 2008, and the degree to which it made her consider walking away from acting, what led her to pursue naturalism in her early performances, but more recently to embrace expressionistic work, why she had a harder time saying goodbye to her character from the fable moons than any other that she has played, plus much more. And so without further ado, let's go to that conversation.