Acclaimed director Steven Spielberg is bearing all with his latest film The Fabelmans. A semi-autobiographical drama about his early days as an aspiring filmmaker in a family divided between creativity and objectivity, the film is a chance for the legendary auteur to open up to audiences about what made him such a force in the film industry. On the side of creativity and wonder came his mother Leah Adler, a skilled pianist and artist who encouraged Spielberg’s creativity all while trying to harness her own. When Michelle Williams was asked to bring her to life as Mitzi Fabelman, she could hardly believe it.
In a larger profile for the film from The Hollywood Reporter, Williams described her excitement simply to be in a Spielberg film. She’d already had an accomplished career of her own, complete with four Academy Award nominations, but working with a director of his caliber is something many actors dream of. To play a role so personally close to the director, however, was its own entirely unique challenge. She spoke of the amount of responsibility it gave her, saying:
As it was dawning on me what was happening, I had to stop and ask him, ‘Wait, are you asking me to play your mother?’ And he said, ‘Yes, that is what I’m asking.’ To not only be asked to play a part in one of his movies, but to be asked to play his beloved mother … it’s like being taken inside somebody’s heart, to be trusted with this most personal material.
Williams brought to the table an extensive resume that included My Week With Marilyn, Manchester By the Sea and Brokeback Mountain on the silver screen as well as an Emmy-winning turn as Gwen Verdon in Fosse/Verdon. The role that swayed Spielberg, however, was her performance opposite Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine. Earning an Oscar nomination, she played a housewife with hope for greater things as a doctor, although she’s stuck in a tense marriage with an unambitious husband. That somewhat mirrors the dynamic of Burt (Paul Dano) and Mitzi Fabelman who find themselves at odds thanks to Burt’s rigidity and Mitzi’s carefree creativity.
Regarding Spielberg’s mother though, Williams remarks on how much freedom she had to explore her creative interests and be herself coming out of an era where many women were stuck acting as homemakers. She added:
After I finished the script, I said to my husband, ‘They let her live as a woman, not just as a mother.’ Everything that she did, she did completely.
Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner Recalled Their Own Mothers’ Sacrifices
Written by Spielberg and collaborator Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans also combines the experiences of both writers with their own mothers to show the sacrifices women often made for their families. “It’s that question of a woman’s sense of self-ownership, self-possession,” Kushner said in the profile. Spielberg added on, describing the ways his mother would cope with her own loss of artistic freedom. The most notable incident was when she bought a monkey to liven things up which the director said, “was a grand distraction, but it was also a therapeutic companion for my mom, who was really at that time in our lives going through a major depression.”
Williams is joined by Gabriel LaBelle, Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch in the film alongside Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett, and Keeley Karsten. The Fabelmans will see a limited release in theaters on November 11 before expanding to all theaters nationwide on November 23. Check out the trailer below.
