Gosling and Williams 'Blue Valentine' Interview

As promised yesterday, here is my interview with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams on "Blue Valentine." Just to reiterate, I truly believe Gosling and Williams are two of the best actors of their generation. And I love the projects they choose, even if the end result isn't always wonderful. Gosling has another film out right now, "All Good Things," that is a very interesting failure. It doesn't quite work, but I really admire the filmmaker and the actors for trying to do something different. And Williams, who could have gone the blockbuster/America's Sweetheart route, has chosen to take small, intriguing roles like "Wendy and Lucy" and "I'm Not There" instead.

When I interviewed her for the "Blue Valentine" piece, I had to ask her (actually I fawned all over her) about these choices, and if she was ever tempted to take a big, silly, blockbuster role. She told me, "I think that other people would be much better in them and that’s why I stay away from them.  I’m not the best girl for the job." We both agreed we love to watch big action movies from time to time, but I think she said it best when she noted, "I just don’t think that’s where my talent lies."

Not that she's ruling it out in the future though. If you think about it, "Shutter Island" was a big, star-laden, studio film and she managed to create an interesting part in that. She added, "I wouldn’t know what to do in those movies.  I don’t understand them, I wouldn’t know how to make them feel real.  But then also, I’m also thinking, maybe that would be really interesting, maybe that would be a really big challenge for myself to try one out.  I don’t know, I doubt it but I feel like I’ve got such limited time to make movies that I really only want to do stuff that my heart is singing out to do."

Whatever she chooses, I'll be there to see it.

--Jenelle Riley