Michelle: Heath's Death Changed Me

But three years later, life has 'repaired itself'
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 14, 2011 10:53 AM CDT
Michelle Williams 'Vogue' Interview: Heath Ledger's Death Changed Me
Australian actor Heath Ledger kisses girlfriend Michelle Williams during arrivals at the 15th annual Gotham Awards in New York, in this, Nov. 30, 2005, file photo.   (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, file)

When Heath Ledger died, "it felt like we didn’t have anything," Michelle Williams recalls in a new Vogue cover story. But three years later, "my life—our life—has kind of repaired itself," she says. "It's not a perfectly operating system—there are holes and dips and electrical storms—but the basics are intact." Even so, she admits Ledger's death has affected almost everything she does: "It’s changed how I see the world and how I interact on a daily basis. It’s changed the parent I am. It’s changed the friend I am. It’s changed the kind of work that I really want to do. It’s become the lens through which I see life—that it’s all impermanent."

"For a really long time," she recalls, "I couldn’t stop touching people’s faces. I was like, ‘Look at you! You move! You’re here!’ It all just seemed so fleeting, and I wanted to hold on to it." Now, Williams is starring as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, a role that is particularly special to her, and she says she's found her voice upon turning 30: "I have more confidence that I can handle what life brings me. ... I feel giddy about it because it’s a complete transformation." Click to see her dressed as Monroe on the magazine's cover. (More Michelle Williams stories.)

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