Michelle Williams and Jeremy Strong have had a decades-long friendship full of support.
Williams and Strong met while acting at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2004 when they were both in their early 20s. The actors weren’t starring in the same production at the time — Williams appeared in The Cherry Orchard while Strong starred in Haroun and the Sea of Stories — but they struck up a bond nonetheless.
“We were both very young without real access to an interior of a life in the theater or in cinema,” Williams recalled during a May 2025 appearance on NPR’s “Fresh Air” podcast. “We were hungry, we were wanting and striving. That is hard and takes a lot of effort and also a lot of doggedness to keep at it.”
That same year, Williams filmed Brokeback Mountain, during which she started a romantic relationship with costar Heath Ledger. She and Ledger welcomed their daughter Matilda in 2005. They split in 2007, months before his death.
Ledger died at age 28 in 2008 following an accidental drug overdose, and Williams’ friendship with Strong helped her cope with his passing.
Keep scrolling for a breakdown of Williams and Strong’s friendship:
His Bond With MatildaWilliams was asked about Strong — and his method acting following a controversial New Yorker article at the time — during a 2022 interview with Variety. She spoke candidly about the Succession alum’s character and how he helped her daughter following Ledger’s death.
“Jeremy was serious enough to hold the weight of a child’s broken heart and sensitive enough to understand how to approach her through play and games and silliness,” Williams said. “[Matilda] didn’t grow up with her father, but she grew up with her Jeremy and we were changed by his ability to play as though his life depended upon it, because hers did.”
She added, “We’ve watched him work harder than anyone and wait a long time for other people to recognize it. So, when he became so celebrated, we all celebrated.”
Naming Her HouseThe Variety article revealed that Strong moved into Williams’ house following Ledger’s death. She offered more details about that time in her life during a May 2025 appearance on NPR’s “Fresh Air” podcast.
“There were, sort of, multiple people going in and out of that house,” Williams said, noting that she had two friends — including Strong — and her sister living there. “We had a name, I think maybe Jeremy came up with it, and he called it Fort Awesome. It was like Pippi Longstocking or something. Something [like] what you imagine as a child, you imagine this place where you could go, and you could make some of the rules and you would be together, and it would be full of fun and play and ideas and personalities and acceptance and love. … I think that was kind of like what that time was. It was like Fort Awesome.”
Their Familial BondDuring the same podcast episode, Williams said she and Strong have raised their children “in great proximity” to one another. (Along with Matilda, Williams shares three kids with husband Thomas Kail. Strong is the father of three daughters with wife Emma Wall.)
Williams acknowledged that the public doesn’t get to “witness” Strong the way she does.
“He would be engaged for as long as Matilda wanted to be on fairy princesses or tea parties or dress up,” she recalled. “I think I was trying to communicate that there’s another aspect to this person, this friend of mine who I love so much, and to shine a little light on that.”
Praising His Worth EthicWhile Strong’s dedication to his career has received widespread criticism, Williams had nothing but praise for her friend.
“I think it’s really inspiring to see the way that he’s held on to that work ethic, even though he has now such great success in so many accolades,” she said during her “Fresh Air” appearance. “He’s still working, like, banging on that door, just like when we were young. And I really admire that.”
