Michelle Williamspaid tribute to her formerDawson’s Creekonscreen grandmotherMary Beth Peilin a heartfelt speech at the Gotham Awards.
“Mary Beth Peil played my grams onDawson’s Creek,” she continued.
“I was an emancipated minor when we met.
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I was 16 years old, and I was totally alone.
Mary Beth Peil was the first artist that I had ever met in my life.
She didn’t call herself that, but there was something different about her.
Peil “showed me that creativity was more than a mere profession,” Williams said.
“And all of this vitality was miraculously turned in my direction.
Her smiling face was looking at me, and she called me her girl.
That’s wonderful, my girl.
You should do that, you should try that,'” Williams said.
“I had just gotten people to stop calling me Shelly.
But now I was Mary Beth’s girl.
And that made me a somebody.”
“That’s why people, I think, are so connected to it.
When something affects you while you were growing up, it kind of stays in there forever.
