Michelle Williams plays the role as Glinda, one of the witches, of Oz: The Great and Powerful! I had the opportunity to interview her after previewing the film. This was during my Red Carpet Premiere Even at the El Capitan Theater. We then interviewed her at the beautiful Langham Hunting Hotel. Throughout the interview, her humbleness as a mother really shines. I learned that not only is she awesome in the movie but she is so real and down to earth about life, career, and motherhood! I can’t wait for you to watch the movie to find out what happens!
I took the liberty to bold some of my favorite lines from her!
Question : Are you prepared to have legions of little girls flocking around you?
MICHELLE : “…In all truthfulness, it was maybe the most exciting thing for me was, was to realize, because we made it on a sound stage, and you’re sort of locked down, you know, and nobody really comes in and out, but the- there are these little girls, this little extra, the, uh, Quadling children, and I would walk by them in full costume, you would just hear, awww, ohhh, and they were like really shy, like waving, and like, that way I was like, wow, I didn’t, I hadn’t entertained this possibility at all, that I would delight young children.
I was thinking about delighting one young child, and I didn’t realize there would be more than one. And that’s, I mean, really like what feels better in this whole world than making a kid smile? So, um, so that’s fine with me.
Q : How do you balance your career with motherhood?
MICHELLE : I was afraid you might ask something like that. I mean, how do you, how does anybody do it. It is, um, it’s like an Olympian undertaking. Okay, what have I figured out? What have I really learned. Um, they’re all such hard lessons, too, I find. Like, when you really arrive at something that’s like true and honest, it’s taken you so long to get there, and you had to work so hard for it.
Because, um, because it’s just not what you think it’s gonna be, and nobody really prepares you for it, and nobody really tells you the truth, which is that it’s not possible. It’s not possible to do both things well at the same time, especially not if you are exacting, and maybe a Virgo, and like, you know, like, really critical, and like ask a lot of yourself. But I think, you know, I mean, every mother that I know asks a lot of themselves. Um, so what, what, what I’m trying to wrap my head around is that it’s, it- get comfortable with the moments, to get comfortable with the fact that it’s gonna feel like a scale, and there’s never gonna be- I’m never gonna arrive at a perfect balance, and it’s always gonna be a give and take.
Something’s always gonna feel like it’s suffering, like it’s underserved. And that’s really hard on your heart, um, to feel like you’re not being the best parent that you could be, or you’re not being the best at your job that you could be, but, um, that’s what I’m, I’m really trying to get peaceful with the fact that I’m always going to feel like that and that is the equation, um, for as long as I choose to or have to stay in this position where I work and where I parent. Um, uh, it’s so hard.
It’s just so hard, [LAUGHS]. It’s really overwhelming. Uh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I’d be more apt to ask you guys, like, one of you figure it out. What works for you? What doesn’t, like, what are like the, what are the tricks, what are the hints? Like, what do you give up? I’ve definitely given up on, like, um, you know, I would rather- it’s a lot of work to clean a house, and I would rather, I think, you know, something small like this.
This is, like, a big epiphany for me recently. I was like, I am not gonna wash my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher. I find it so hard to make some time for myself. I am not gonna spend fifteen minutes pre-washing. Why would I do that? I, like, I’m looking for time everywhere, in every corner, every day, and here I am, pre-washing my dishes. Not any more. Silverware, going in there. Knives, going in there.
Wood is not going in there, but, so, uh, yeah, so that’s, I, I try and buy back time where I can- try and like figure out how to buy time. Somebody, a friend of mine said something to me once, he said recently that really stuck with me. He said, everybody thinks that you should spend your time making money, but I think you should spend your money making time. I’m like, yeah.
Q : You were amazing. What was your inspiration?
MICHELLE : Um, thank you. And I think, um, um, well, I mean, I thought a lot about her, and I watched, you know, I’ve watched that movie passively for years, and watched it with my daughter and, um, and I thought a lot about her, uh, a lot about her, but Sam said something really interesting to me in the beginning. He said there’s a reason that Glinda, the Good Witch doesn’t go down the Yellow Brick Road, and that she’s not on the journey, because she’s one dimensional.
She needs to learn about herself, and thus she’s like the least relatable character. And I thought, right, that’s a good point. We don’t wanna do that, you know. We want people to feel like they’re on a journey with Glinda, too, and that she isn’t this sort of crystalized version who knew it all along and, um, and we want her to have struggle, we want her to be human. But does she have to struggle with because she doesn’t have, she doesn’t have, like, a split nature, you know. She’s not, like, struggling with her- what is she allowed, how can she still be good, and innocent, and believe the best in people, but still have a struggle?
And obviously, she’s struggling for the freedom of these people, and she’s struggling, you know, a little bit with her own self doubt. Um, but, you know, I thought a lot about, I thought a lot about transformation. She’s not somebody who’s had a perfectly easy ride. She was, um, she lost her father. She, uh, is, she’s in charge of these, um, these sort of refugees, but she doesn’t really know how to protect them and how to make them see.
Um, and I can’t say that those aren’t things that I’ve, you know, that I’ve weighed in my life. And so I thought a lot about transformation and how Glinda transforms these dark and dire situations, how she uses kinds of bub- I thought about her as somebody who, who transforms tears into bubbles, that she makes the best out of a rotten situation because of a way that she chooses to look at it. Um, that takes a lot of energy and it’s not entirely human.
Um, it is a super-human quality, although I have seen it on, like, Sam, our director. By the way, one wife, five kids. One wife and five kids. It’s like, amazing. It’s amazing. He’s such a cool guy. Um, but he had that attitude, you know. It’s like a really tough job to make a movie that’s this big. Can you imagine, like all those personalities, like a hundred and fifty people, all their personalities, all their jobs, all their questions, and Sam is, like, the funnel for all of it. And he maintained this exuberant and this buoyancy, and this belief in the possibility, and he was interested in what everybody had to say.
So in some ways, you know, I was inspired…a lot about my daughter, about- I just think a lot about my daughter, but I also, um, I kinda thought a lot about Sam as kind of Glinda the Good Witch. And I thought about, like, Joan of Ark and, you know, heroes.
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Be sure to watch this new trailer and mark your calendar! Oz The Great and Powerful will be playing in theaters on March 8th!
Disney’s fantastical adventure “Oz The Great and Powerful,” directed by Sam Raimi, imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved wizard character. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great wizard but into a better man as well.
Disclaimer: Trip was sponsored by Disney. All opinions and experiences are my own!