When Heath Ledger suddenly died in a New York apartment early this year, of an apparent accidental overdose, one person was noticeably silent about the issue: Michelle Williams, the actor’s former love and the mother of his child, Matilda Rose.  The two’s relationship began when they met on the set of the acclaimed film Brokeback Mountain in 2004; their daughter was born a year later, and they split after two.

Since then, Williams has been hounded by paparazzi and the media, aiming to get a statement from her after her tight-lipped demeanor on Ledger’s death.  Finally, she speaks about those events in an interview with Newsweek, which hits stores next week.  The interview may be to promote her latest film, Wendy and Lucy, but inevitably the conversation would go there.

“It’s so sad,” she said.  “I guess it’s always changing.  What else can I say?  I just wake up each day in a slightly different place—grief is like a moving river, so that’s what I mean by ‘it’s always changing.’  It’s a strange thing to say, because I’m at heart an optimistic person, but I would say in some ways it just gets worse.  It’s just that the more time that passes, the more you miss someone.  In some ways it gets worse.  That’s what I would say.”

The death has affected her, too, especially with the spotlight suddenly pointed at her because of her relationship with the actor.  She admitted that, at one point, she was forced to move away from her Brooklyn apartment which she shared with Ledger, to a farm in upstate New York.  There she’s been living in relative peace, but if things don’t relent, she might drop acting altogether.

“If it gets to the point where I can’t situate my life in a way that they stay away more, then I'll drop a match on the thing,” she said.  “I’ll be sad.  I like to act.  It’s saved my life over and over again.  It’s given me a sense of self-esteem, self-worth.  I have this thing that I’m in love with—acting—and now it has this baggage.”

That’s not the entire interview yet, so you can wait for copies of Newsweek to land in stores next week.  And maybe we can hope that things do get better for Williams.  After all, you can say she just got dragged into this.


-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: MTV News
(Image courtesy of AP)