One thing Michelle Williams didn't want to wait for: the chance to shed her cheesy Dawson's Creek image.
"I said to a friend being on Dawson's Creek was kind of like being a mobster," the actress, 30, told PopEater about appearing on the teen sitcom with Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and James Van der Beek. "You set up a shop selling pizza but in the back you're laundering money. You're doing one thing in plain sight and secretly plotting something else. I was plotting my tastes, my interests, my beliefs and hopes for what I could be."
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Williams admitted it was a struggle to get substantial work after the show ended. "Yes, it was hard getting jobs I wanted," she said. "I was a pop tart. It took patience and baby steps."
The Oscar-nominated star, next up opposite Ryan Gosling in the indie flick Blue Valentine, revealed her five-year-old daughter Matilda (with the late Heath Ledger) also has some more mature tastes.
"She's into Fred [Astaire] and Ginger [Rogers] right now," she said. "Don't get me wrong, she has her pop culture references, but I try to make a balance is all."