Michelle Williams is reflecting on making her TV debut at age 12 with an appearance on Baywatch.
When asked on Entertainment Weekly’s “The Awardist” podcast whether being in the presence of a “Baywatch bikini” was intimidating, Williams, 44, replied, “I mean … I don’t … [I] think I was 12.”
“I didn’t know what thoughts to think. It was all kind of experience and very little processing,” she said during the August interview.
Williams appeared on the season 4 premiere episode, “Race Against Time, Part 1,” in 1993, where she played Bridget Bowers, who had a crush on Jeremy Jackson‘s Hobie. Williams later returned 11 episodes later, where she was listed as “Hobie’s Groupie.”
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When asked whether the two characters are the same person, Williams replied, “Whoa … I mean, I don’t know who is equipped to answer that question. Not me. That might be some stuff for the chat.”
As for what she remembered from the experience, Williams shared, “I don’t remember much. I just remember the bikini hanging in my trailer.”
Williams went on to star as Jen Lindley on Dawson’s Creek, which premiered in 1998. The show aired for six seasons until coming to a close in 2003. More than two decades later, the cast is set to reunite on September 22 for a live reading of the pilot in support of James Van Der Beek’s cancer battle. (Van Der Beek, 48, announced in 2024 that he was diagnosed with stage III colorectal cancer.)
“We grew up in Capeside and that’s a bond that will last a lifetime,” Williams said at the time, referring to the location’s beach town. “We wanted to gather around our dear friend James and remind him that we are all here. We always have been and we always will be. And I know the fans of Dawson’s Creek feel the same way.”
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Alongside Williams and Van Der Beek, fellow alums Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson will appear with Mary Beth Peil, John Wesley Shipp, Mary-Margaret Humes, Nina Repeta, Kerr Smith, Meredith Monroe and Busy Philipps. Series creator Kevin Williamson will also celebrate the show.
“I am so excited to reunite with James, Michelle, Katie, Joshua and our Dawson’s Creek family for such a special night. Dawson’s Creek changed my life,” Williamson, 60, said in a statement. “What began as a personal story about a young man and his friends navigating their way through the challenges of life became so much more than I ever dreamed.”
He continued, “[The show] created an enduring fandom and legacy all over the world. I am so honored to be a part of it and to support our beautiful friend James as we continue to navigate our way through life and its many challenges.”
