Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling learned how to “annoy” each other by cohabiting while filming their 2010 romantic drama, Blue Valentine.
“We shot the first part where they’re young and in love and everything is going really well and then we took a two week break and we lived together. Office hours, baby, like, 9 to 5. Professional situation,” Williams, 44, recalled during the Monday, May 19, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast. “So we did these improvisations during the day to, honestly, find out ways to annoy each other and to destroy this thing that we had made.”
Williams noted that production initially didn’t plan on taking a break from filming, but she and Gosling, 44, were too connected for what came next. “We were having such a hard time letting go of the thing we loved,” she explained.
While living side by side, Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance would come into Williams and Gosling’s shared space and give them a “scenario” before leaving them to their own devices, hoping they’d build on their estrangement. He’d then return and say, “After you’ve had this frustrating day, now you’re going to go take your daughter to the amusement park and try and have a good time,’” Williams remembered. “It was fun.”
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While the five-time Oscar nominee pointed out that it’s unlikely actors would be given that much room to “play” today — “Try selling that to a producer,” she joked — she was thankful they had the opportunity.
The duo even “burned” their characters’ wedding photo to kick off the friction, much to Williams’ dismay.
“We learned how to annoy each other. It was horrible,” she said. She recalled thinking, “I don’t want to give you reasons to hate me. We were having such a good time. The party has to be over so soon?”
The exercise even backfired to an extent, with Williams admitting she simply ended up disliking herself. “You don’t have to hate me, because now I hate me,” she quipped. “I’m annoying. We [were] calling forth all our worst qualities!”
Williams and Gosling starred as Cindy and Dean, respectively, in the critically acclaimed romance, a couple whose relationship takes a nosedive after falling madly in love during their 20s. The movie earned Williams an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. (She ultimately lost the award to Natalie Portman for Black Swan.)
While speaking to NPR‘s Fresh Air in 2010, Gosling reflected on sharing a space with Williams for the shoot, explaining that the characters disconnected needed to feel as “genuine and real and true” as the love story portion. He revealed that in addition to burning photos, they celebrated holidays and go through the motions like any real-life family.
“We also celebrated fake Christmas and put up Christmas trees and baked birthday cakes and bought birthday presents, and went to Sears,” he told the outlet. “Whatever we could do to create real memories, so when it came time to shoot the [last] part of the film, we were drawing on real memories.”
He explained, “Most movies, you have to try and forget you’re making a movie, because there are trailers and booms and lights and marks, and it’s everywhere. And with this, you’re trying to remember that it is a movie, because it’s so easy to get lost in it.”
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Despite their undeniable onscreen chemistry, Williams and Gosling never dated in real life. Williams welcomed daughter Matilda in 2005 with the late Heath Ledger before tying the knot with musician Phil Elverum in 2018. The pair were married for less than a year before calling it quits in 2019. Months later, Williams announced she was engaged to Thomas Kail and they wed in 2020. They have since welcomed three children together.
Gosling, for his part, has been in a relationship with Eva Mendes since 2011. The couple share two daughters: Esmeralda Amada, born in 2014, and Amada Lee, born 2016.
