Michelle Williams is looking back on her time filming Blue Valentine.  

The Oscar nominee starred in Derek Cianfrance’s 2010 romantic drama alongside Ryan Gosling as a couple who were once in love but drifted apart. After shooting early scenes where their characters were “young and in love,” Williams said they “took a two-week break” in filming and were encouraged to live together to “figure out ways to annoy each other.” 

“We took a break in filming, and [then] we lived together, office hours [style], like 9 to 5,” she said on a recent episode of the Armchair Expert podcast. “We did these improvisations during the day, honestly, to figure out ways to annoy each other and to destroy this thing that we had made.”

The Dying for Sex star admitted “we weren’t even going to take that break” but they did because “we were having such a hard time letting go of the thing that we loved.” Williams said the experience “was horrible” and that she didn’t “want to give [Gosling] reasons to hate me.”

“Derek was like, ‘We got to mess this up, and we need to burn it down,’” Williams recalled. “And we did a ceremonial [exercise], burned our wedding photo, and then we learned how to annoy each other.”

Because of the break in filming, Williams is uncertain if other movies could use that same approach in the modern day. 

“I don’t know if anyone could work like that again,” she admitted. “You’ve got a crew that’s on hold, you’re paying people. I mean, it was such a small movie, so low budget and a small crew, but you’re taking a big down period in the middle of [filming] and to what end, playing, exploring — try to justify that to a producer.” 

Blue Valentine earned Williams her second Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Cindy. It was the sole nod for the film at the 2011 Academy Awards.