Michelle Williams, Judd Hirsch on making back-to-back movies together: 'It was serendipitous'

NEW YORK – Michelle Williams' new film is a comedy, depending what continent you're on.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt, "Showing Up" (now in theaters) follows the day-to-day of a reticent sculptor named Lizzy (Williams) as she races to finish her work for an imminent show. The movie finds droll amusement in Lizzy's spats with her apathetic artist landlord, Jo (Hong Chau), and tensions with her eccentric splintered family, who reunite at a chaotic gallery opening.

But the story is also poignant for many viewers. When "Showing Up" premiered at Cannes Film Festival in France last year, Williams spoke to a young French woman who walked out of the screening in tears.

"She wiped her eyes and said, 'It's about how hard it is to be an artist,' " Williams recalls. "I was so moved to see this woman who got the film so deeply that it became that emotional of a journey for her. Yes, it's a comedy ..."

"But to the French, it's very sad," Reichardt deadpans.

Michelle Williams, Hong Chau learned sculpting for 'Showing Up'

"Showing Up" is Williams' fourth collaboration with Reichardt, after 2016's "Certain Women," 2011's "Meek's Cutoff" and 2008's "Wendy and Lucy." Co-written with Jon Raymond, the film was initially envisioned as a biopic of sorts about Canadian artist Emily Carr, who made her income running a boarding house, but resented the job for distracting her from painting.

Although the movie eventually evolved into a fictional story, "the idea of balancing work and life is what stayed with us," Reichardt says.

To prepare for the project, Williams shadowed artist Cynthia Lahti, whose ceramic figures are featured in the film.

"To see this thing that was clay start to come alive, it would bring tears to my eyes," Williams says. "Because you know the kind of discipline that's required to show up at your table day in and day out. Once I asked a friend of mine who was learning to surf, 'How do you learn?' And he said, 'I do it every day in all kinds of weather.' And that's just stayed with me for decades. When I see somebody making work, you see the years of sitting through imperfect conditions to finally have some fluency and control."

Chau also worked with mixed-media artist Michelle Segre to help make Jo's artwork distinct from Lizzy's clay creations.

"A lot of her work was very physical," Chau says. "She was bending pipes and drilling and using a lot of wire and wrestling with things. She was getting sweaty. (Laughs.) That was the big a-ha moment for me: This is muscular, very physical art."

The movie is a 'Fabelmans' reunion with Judd Hirsch

For Williams, 42, the project parallels another of her recent films: Steven Spielberg's loosely autobiographical "The Fabelmans," for which she earned her fifth Oscar nomination playing Mitzi, a version of the filmmaker's mom. Both movies focus on artists and the parents who shaped them, and feature Judd Hirsch in small but memorable roles.

In "Fabelmans," Hirsch portrays the animated Boris, who warns young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) that art and family can't coexist. And in "Showing Up," he co-stars as Lizzy's accomplished ceramicist father, Bill.

They're both about "kids and art: these things that are sort of in our control, but also out of our control," Williams says. "Judd Hirsch also centers in both of the films as this sort of catalytic force of creation, which is very funny."

The films shot back-to-back in summer 2021. (In fact, Williams recalls, Hirsch was learning lines for "Fabelmans" on the Portland, Oregon, set of "Showing Up.") Hirsch, 88, knew he wanted to join the project after watching Reichardt's 2020 movie "First Cow."

"I thought, 'This Kelly Reichardt's got a very interesting mind for film,' " Hirsch says over email. "Also, I believed that Michelle’s one of the best actresses in America. Of course, it was serendipitous that I was also asked to appear as her uncle Boris in 'The Fabelmans.' We both laughed and shivered at the prospect of playing those two parts in Spielberg's film, but I cherish the whole experience."

Unlike Boris, who storms into the Fabelman household like a tornado, Bill is more low-key in his interactions with Lizzy. It's reflective of Reichardt's quiet, slice-of-life storytelling.

"Kelly Reichardt is curiously more interested in the character than in what he has to say, which is an interesting challenge to play," Hirsch says. "There should be more Kelly Reichardts around making films."

More movies to watch this week: 

'One True Loves': Phillipa Soo brings the romantic novel to life on the big screen

'Air': Matt Damon on Easter eggs, his pal Ben Affleck and meeting Michael Jordan

'The Super Mario Bros. Movie': Seth Rogen took inspiration from Nintendo's Donkey Kong

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michelle Williams, Judd Hirsch talk 'Showing Up' and 'The Fabelmans'