In an extremely emotional and heartfelt acceptance speech, actress Michelle Williams (42), nominated for four Oscars, raved about her former "Dawson's Creek" grandmother Mary Beth Peil (82). Williams received a Performer Tribute award at last Monday night's Gotham Awards in New York, and took the opportunity to speak onstage about her close friendship with Peil, which she says shaped her deeply when she was young.

Williams will soon be seen in "The Fabelmans" as the mother of teenage protagonist Sammy Fabelman, who is based on Steven Spielberg (75). Speaking on stage at the Gotham Awards, Williams said, "I didn't know how I could have been Steven Spielberg's mother without first being Mary Beth [Peil's] granddaughter, so thank you Mary Beth." This shows a video of the acceptance speech published by "Variety".

The experienced actress Peil became a kind of mentor on the set of the series "Dawson's Creek" for Williams, who was only 16 at the beginning of production. In her acceptance speech, Peil describes Williams as "the first artist I've met in my life". The versatile actress, who began her career as an opera singer, inspired her, among other things, to act in theatre. At that point in her career, Williams was not an artist, a mother, or a graduate student. "But now I was Mary Beth's girl, and that made me someone," Williams said.

The cult series "Dawson's Creek" was broadcast for six seasons between 1998 and 2003. In a total of 198 episodes, Peil played the grandmother of Williams' character Jen Lindley with Evelyn "Grams" Ryan. Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film "The Fabelmans" will be released in German cinemas on March 9, 2023.