Michelle Williams: 'Blue Valentine's' NC-17 Rating 'Feels Like a Slap'6:15 PM 11/5/2010 by Philiana Ng
Michelle Williams would rather have her upcoming film Blue Valentine hold onto its NC-17 rating than change the film.
"I'm happy for it to stay just like it is. Genuinely, I am," Williams told Entertainment Weekly when asked if she thought the film should be re-edited to receive an R rating. "Movies get to have long lives and it'll be judged and rejudged in 10 or 20 or 30 years, and I'll be curious to see how it stands."
"It seems like such a condemnation," noted Williams, who is in London filming My Week With Marilyn and will miss Saturday's Los Angeles premiere of Blue Valentine. "It feels like such a slap on the hand, like you've been a bad kid or something."
The Weinstein Co., who is distributing the film, is appealing the MPAA's NC-17 rating -- which translates to No Children under age 17 admitted. Harvey Weinstein told EW that he has already assembled a team of lawyers, including Alan Friedman, who was successful in getting the Seth Rogen-Elizabeth Banks film Zack & Miri Make a Porno an R rating.
“We’re going to have to overturn this,” Weinstein said. “This is serious stuff. This could really hurt the movie.”
“[Director] Derek [Cianfrance] doesn’t want to do it, I don’t think there’s any reason to do it, and of course I’m worried that if we don’t get the R it could jeopardize the business of the movie and more importantly my actors … because they are eminently nominatable," he said when asked about possibly editing down the film.
Added Weinstein: “If [Piranha 3D] got an NC-17, I’d be the first going, ‘All right, we gotta cut some of that stuff.’ It’s ridiculous -- a penis got coughed up in the movie by a piranha!" Piranha 3D received an R rating.
Blue Valentine, which has been on the festival circuit for nearly a year, centers on a young couple (Williams and Ryan Gosling) going through marital troubles.
Williams spoke of the deep bond she shared with Gosling during shooting.
"I haven't really talked to him about this, but that movie went so deep, that for a while when we would see each other, we were kind of where our characters left off for a few moments in time," she shared.
Williams mentioned that after filming finishes for My Week With Marilyn, she will be “taking some time off. I’m not working for another year.”
Blue Valentine hits theaters in the U.S. on Dec. 31.
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