Carefully, Williams Opens Up

In the wake of the media circus surrounding Heath Ledger's death, ex-fiancee Michelle Williams laid low and threw herself into her work, refusing all interviews until the New York Times recently sat down to discuss the four movies the actress has shot since last summer. "I don’t want to talk about my personal life, but it’s on my mind, and it’s in my work," Williams says.

“It’s a fine line between wanting to be known and understood but also knowing what’s sacred," says Williams, who sought out the refuge and intimacy of working on the Oregon-based independent film Wendy and Lucy, due out this winter. On continued tabloid interest in her life, Williams only says, "It feels so surreal. How is this my life? When did it get so out of control?” (More Michelle Williams stories.)