Michelle Williams Hasn’t Seen ‘The Fabelmans,’ But Believes She is Lead Not Supporting

Michelle Williams was basically the frontrunner to win the Supporting Actress Oscar as it was, it’s a very weak field of contenders this year. Then Universal decided to campaign her as a Lead Actress. A misguided decision if you ask me. Universal essentially threw away a locked Oscar win.

Now, Williams has to go up against the mighty Cate Blanchett, whose performance in “TAR” is total brilliance, and Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” They’ve both been winning awards these last few weeks, but not Williams.

In an interview with the New York Times, Williams admits that she has not seen “The Fabelmans,” but she thinks her performance is deserving of lead:

“Although I haven’t seen the movie, the scenes that I read, the scenes that we shot, the scenes that I’m told are still in the movie, are akin to me with experiences that I have had playing roles considered lead.”

Williams should consult writer Michael Stewart who broke down the screentime for each individual player in “The Fabelmans.” The film is 152 minutes long and Williams just has 52 minutes of screentime. That, to me, is a Supporting role. Gabrielle LaBelle is the actual lead actor of the whole thing.

On a side note, Williams not watching “The Fabelmans” is rather strange, but then again there are plenty of actors in the industry who refuse to watch themselves on-screen. Williams admits in the interview that the last time she watched herself on-screen was in 2011’s “Meek’s Cutoff.”

Williams is fine in “The Fabelmans,” but it’s nowhere near being her best work. Her essential performances were in “Dick,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Wendy and Lucy,” and “Manchester By the Sea.”