Laura Dern & Michelle Williams | Actors on Actors

In their Actors on Actors conversation Laura Dern ('The Son') and Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans') bond over their shared experiences with Steven Spielberg including 'Jurassic Park.' Williams talks in depth about Spielberg's mother and Laura Dern explains how she introduced Spielberg to her other long time collaborator David Lynch.

Variety Actors on Actors presented by Amazon Studios.

[Flkser]

Michelle Williams is seriously a national treasure when it comes to acting. Literally a whole another level of acting skills, not only that she's one of the best actress of her generation but she's also one of few actress who deserves to win an Oscar atleast once in her career. I was amazed by her in The Fabelmans

[AvecPoesie]

I loved that Mary Oliver poem reference made by Michelle..."your one wild and precious life." She is so utterly literate, intelligent, eloquently-spoken, and aware.

[erikd]

I adore Laura Dern. It seems like everybody in the industry absolutely loves her, she’s like the epitome of a girls girl and overall just really chill. When she does the actress roundtable every other actress participating will often have a story about how much they love her.

[paramitch]

This year's interviews and pairings are really good, and this one is another standout. Both Dern and Williams are such warm, intelligent and thoughtful performers, and have given us so many genuinely rich and complicated characters. Terrific conversation.

[helenpaul]

Michelle Williams is so engaging to listen to. She speak so softly and there is that gentle humility in her despite her huge talent in any role thrown to her.

[artlesscalamity]

Laura Dern is so eloquent. I love her phrase of the “fine line between brokenness and broken-open.” Williams is of course the top of her field - adventurous, shapeshifting, soulful. Great pairing of two incredible artists.

[Flkser]

I'm still amazed how brilliant Michelle was in Blue Valentine and Manchester By The Sea, two of my favourite movies of all time by twisting my heart and emotion with a raw strong performance from her that felt so real and heartbreaking, I teared up watching both movies, it's so real that I almost forgot that Michelle was just acting. She dissapeared in both movies and became the character she's playing. Great movies that are absolutely painful and difficult to watch

[NaticzkaKaminskaHenryDolphin]

This was such a warm, insightful conversation, one of the best of a kind! Both Laura and Michelle send out very good, calming vibes so you just want to listen to them! And it's quite rare.

This Actors on Actors series is the best. It's so fresh to see the empathy between them.

[delrey]

They are both legends👌
Hope Michelle gets her Oscar soon too.

[thedarkknight]

If I ever met Laura Dern in person I would be shaking to my core and I wouldn’t be able to call her anything other than Dr. Sattler.

[akee]

I watched all of these interviews today and this is the only one that made me cry. A lot.

[kentsilverfour]

What a great delight watching this exchange from the heart of two of the most beloved and respected actresses nowadays. They learned the path to understand acting, and for what they talked about, they really appreciate their opportunities to learn from Spielberg and Lynch. I wish that they could have talked more about other projects though. All the love for these two.

[robdilauro]

When I was living in Michigan years ago I was invited to an extras party for Sam Raimi's Oz prequel by an actress friend, so when I was in the bar I see this beautiful, shorter blonde step in, and I know who it is right away. I have loved and worked in horror so I have a Michael Myers tattoo that was uncovered because I had a black muscle shirt because it was a Midwest summer night. Anyway, I was speaking to another actor, and then I feel someone touching my arm, so I literally look down and see Michelle Williams with a look of fascination, so I asked her if she liked it, to which she replied, "I love it, but I also f***ing hate it", because she was in Halloween H20. We talk for about ten minutes, and she walks away. Twenty minutes later, she steps up to me because she is apparently being harassed at the bar, and she asks me how tall I am, I say 6 foot 2, and she grabs me by the arm and I was basically her bodyguard for four hours haha. No photos of the night out of respect for her and her privacy, just a memory that I will always hold onto, and to answer your question, Michelle Williams is shy, but she has presence in any room, while being absolutely fun, open, and simply an amazing woman you want to be around.

[vaskylark]

I love Laura Dern, always have. She's good in everything she does.

[lulugoulart]

Two adorable human beings with an extraordinary talent.

[colleenpodraza]

Beautiful & smart conversation with two unbelievably talented actors.❤

[hm]

The warm & brilliant feminine energy in this room & video are simply 🔥

Thank you for putting these 2 together🙏🏻

[Flkser]

You know what I love the most about Michelle other than her acting? Her short hair, apparently she kept her hair like as a tribute to her ex, Heath Ledger. Heath used to love Michelle with short hair when they dated therefore, it's a nice way for Michelle in honoring his memory even as his ex. Heath would've definitely be proud in Michelle's further success as well as her way in raising their daughter

[simonboccanegra]

There's been a lot of discussion of the "nepo babies" term lately, whether it's unfair. Laura Dern is an example of overcoming that knock. If anyone ever said she was getting roles because her parents are successful actors, it was a long time ago. Now it's just a part of her biography, as with Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas, the Fonda siblings, and other second-generation actors. She kept her head down and kept proving herself with very different great work: Smooth Talk, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Rambling Rose, Citizen Ruth, Inland Empire, The Master, Twin Peaks: The Return, Marriage Story, Little Women..so many others (a few blockbuster commercial films as well).

In her time, some other children of famous actors have tried to follow in their parents' footsteps and have faded. There are young Laura Derns and less gifted examples among us today. Time has a way of separating the wheat from the chaff.