Allison Williams on Nepotism, Girls, and Giving it Her All

Whether she’s girl-bossing as Gemma in the M3GAN franchise or acting out Marnie’s cloying perfectionism in Girls, there’s a sense that Allison Williams’ characters are seemingly calm and in control, are always on the verge of unraveling. So when Josh Boone came calling with the role of Morgan, a young mother struggling to keep it together in Colleen Hoover’s latest adaptation, Regretting You, Williams was ready. But is the 37-year-old actor anything like the people she plays? As she tells her fellow theater kid and Girls costar Andrew Rannells, she can’t help but give it her all.

———

MONDAY 3 PM AUG. 18, 2025 CONNECTICUT

ALLISON WILLIAMS: Hi! You look so handsome.

ANDREW RANNELLS: Come on now!

WILLIAMS: You really do.

RANNELLS: You look so glowy and clean, and I look like I’ve been running after 12-year-olds because I have.

WILLIAMS: You froze. Rannells?

RANNELLS: I hope that doesn’t keep happening. Alright. Let’s start with the basics. I’m Andrew.

WILLIAMS: [Laughs] And I’m Allison.

RANNELLS: We were on the show Girls together.

WILLIAMS: We were.

RANNELLS: And Allison, I’m very excited about your new film. There’s a lot of anticipation, and a lot of secrecy because Regretting You is based on a very popular book by Colleen Hoover. There are a lot of, dare I say, enthusiastic fans of the book.

WILLIAMS: Yes. The Hoover-verse.

RANNELLS: Was that intimidating?

WILLIAMS: Extremely. Especially because, having read her books before, they are often told very clearly in an individual character’s POV, so you spend a ton of time in that character’s shoes. People have a very clear idea of Morgan. It raises the bar. You’re like, “Okay, I’ve got to really make sure I hit this nail on the head.” There’s two approaches. The very actor-y one is like, “Fuck what everyone pictures, I’m going to come at it fresh.”

RANNELLS: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: And then there’s the one that I took, which is to torture myself trying to be what everyone else wants for this character.

RANNELLS: Did you speak to Colleen about that specifically?

WILLIAMS: Well, I found out something incredibly flattering, which is that I was her first choice for Morgan.

RANNELLS: Incredible.

WILLIAMS: Even if they made that up just to make me feel better.

RANNELLS: [Laughs] I’m sure they did not.

WILLIAMS: I was like, if the author herself can picture me in this part, then I’m coming in with a certain amount of goodwill. Also, Josh Boone directed it after adapting The Fault in Our Stars. It felt like kismet. Dave Franco and I had almost worked together on a bunch of different things, and then I was texting with Josh about who was going to play Jenny, my sister, and he was like, “What about Willa Fitzgerald?” I was like, “We did plays together in college. Absolutely.”

RANNELLS: That’s crazy.

WILLIAMS: So it was one of those projects where you’re like, “This has good juju.”

RANNELLS: You’re a mother in real life, but my first reaction to this was, “She’s not old enough to have that child.”

WILLIAMS: I’m very, very moved. I’m literally old enough, which is wild.

RANNELLS: I know, but you were a teen mother in the film, right?

WILLIAMS: Yes. She gets pregnant at 17, and she’s now watching her daughter on the precipice of turning 17 herself. They’re going through a ton of stuff as a family, and in the back of her mind, she has this worry that her daughter’s going to make the same choices that she made, while also being like, “I don’t regret the choices I made, because you’re the result of them.” At the time of shooting this movie, I was a mother to a 3 1/2-year-old. I watched an early cut of it with Alexander, my husband, and he was like, “It’s so strange seeing you be the mom of—”

RANNELLS: A teenager.

WILLIAMS: He was like, “Actually, it’s convincing.” I mean, Mckenna [Grace] is so talented that she would’ve picked up the slack on anything. But we had a good vibe from the start.

RANNELLS: Do you feel like you’re at a point in your career where you are now saying, “I’m a mother, so playing mom parts is exactly where I should be”?

WILLIAMS: It’s like the reverse of all the actors who play high schoolers and don’t want to leave that behind. [Laughs] Our whole job is pretending we relate to stuff that we can’t directly relate to. I haven’t gone through anything that Morgan goes through in this movie, but I’ve gone through shades of it.

RANNELLS: Sure. Now, practically speaking, this movie was filmed in Atlanta.

WILLIAMS: Yes, extremely recently. We filmed in April.

RANNELLS: How long were you away from your family?

WILLIAMS: This whole year has been a lot of us working and coming back and forth to see each other. We have a two-week limit—

RANNELLS: I believe that’s called the Julia Roberts rule. That’s her rule with [her husband] Danny Moder.

WILLIAMS: Well, they seem sexy and happy, so I’m into it. After two weeks there’s so much to catch up on that it’s not possible, so either they would come to Atlanta, or I’d come home. The shoot was maybe two months altogether. It was a very busy start to the year. I filmed an independent movie called Kill Me in Salt Lake City, and then went to the table read for Regretting You. Then I went to New Zealand to finish the M3GAN sequel and then to Atlanta to shoot.

RANNELLS: My god.

WILLIAMS: It was dizzying. And it meant that I couldn’t be in Atlanta for the prep weeks that I love so much as a producer.

RANNELLS: You’ve been a producer on your last several projects, right?

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

RANNELLS: Do you look out for specific things as a producer, especially if you’re acting in the project?

WILLIAMS: The thing I pick up on the most is any kind of communication breakdown that’s happening with the actors, just making sure that the gears are all moving correctly. During production, I’m the department head for the cast.

RANNELLS: That’s a really good way to look at it.

WILLIAMS: In the M3GAN movies, I’m at all the production meetings and scouts and stuff. And you come to all those meetings with a certain point of view that not everybody has. I mean, Girls was such an anomaly in terms of Lena’s roles. You could just turn to her when they’re changing a setup and be like, “What is happening tomorrow?” One of the other things I loved about Girls was that we got to bring ideas to the table, like a blocking suggestion or whatever. There was never this sense of, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

RANNELLS: Well, that was my first television job.

WILLIAMS: Same.

RANNELLS: But something that I find really fascinating about you is that you were not hatched out of an egg and placed on Girls. You had experience.

WILLIAMS: That is exactly what people picture for nepo babies, and they’re not that wrong. But there were some stops along the way. Before I started acting professionally, I did several jobs on sets in support positions. One of them was being Tina Fey’s second assistant the summer she was shooting 30 Rock. I was also a PA, technically an intern, on A Prairie Home Companion, which was Robert Altman’s last movie. That was a stacked cast. I learned so much from that job.

RANNELLS: Nice.

WILLIAMS: And then I was the utility stand-in on the pilot of Boardwalk Empire, the summer going into my senior year of college. That was a job that I got from family connections. It’s not a level playing field. This girl shows up and is hired, not because I was a good height for this show— sometimes I was on apple boxes. Scorsese deserved better, but here he was with me. But every one of these roles was an opportunity to see the machinations of a set, to understand how the rhythm of the day works. Where there’s tension, you can feel it. And I found myself, as I was shooting the pilot for Girls, so grateful to not be learning everything at the same time. Whereas you had a ton of experience as an actor, but you were learning all of this while being fabulous on a TV show. It’s a lot to take in.

RANNELLS: I didn’t start until the third episode, and Lena [Dunham] was directing the episode and also in the scene with me.

WILLIAMS: It’s one of my favorite scenes of all time, honestly.

RANNELLS: That’s very nice. I didn’t really listen to too much of the noise outside of the show.

WILLIAMS: It was such an unusual experience because fans felt very comfortable interacting with me, which was fabulous. And also, it was just culturally loud. I think the fact that I wasn’t Lena meant that journalists felt comfortable talking to me about those criticisms. For the four of us girls on Girls, the assumption was that we were playing ourselves, and all the male actors, as incredible a cast as they are, were given a lot more credibility. So you may not have had to answer for the things that we were being asked to answer for, which were the choices our characters made.

RANNELLS: I think I had a bit of tunnel vision, because I liked doing it so much, and I liked all of you so much. I never judged Elijah for his actions, or thought that anybody was being written to be unlikable. When the show was out, there was a lot of talk about how we were an unlikable group of people, that we were self-centered and just did whatever we wanted. And now, just a decade later, the perception is that those characters were looking out for themselves, or finding their voices.

WILLIAMS: I think it felt too close. A bunch of my friends have been doing rewatches, and they’re enjoying it so much more this time around. They’re like, “I’m not looking in a fun-house mirror anymore. My twenties are comfortably behind me.” So it was a combination of things. I think the women we were portraying were very privileged and self-centered. Marnie drove people crazy. She was a try-hard, she was a perfectionist, she was a type-A teacher’s pet. I’m from that same realm. It’s theater-kid energy. We can really grate if we’re not careful.

RANNELLS: Yeah.

WILLIAMS: Elijah, he could be selfish, but I agreed with most of the things he did. But there were things Marnie did that were objectively bad.

RANNELLS: Do you feel protective of her?

WILLIAMS: I felt much more protective of her back then than I do now, because she has fans now. Back then, I was the only one who really defended her. Everyone wanted to be a Jessa. But I remember feeling like Marnie was getting pummeled on a story level, because she’s being punished for this original sin of seeming to have it all together. How far can she fall? When we were shooting the beach house episode, I got legitimately pissed during the dinner, when you’re making fun of the duck. I remember being like, “She’s right.” But she’s also being a psycho in the same episode.

RANNELLS: So when you go in to play a new character now, is there a different sort of “hold it lightly” mentality? Like, “I can’t control what people think”?

WILLIAMS: Honestly, my goal for Morgan was for people to feel like they could relate to her, even if they didn’t agree with what she was doing. The circumstances of her life have made her into the person she is. So the question is just, “Does she feel like a real human being that people can relate to?” We’ll see.

RANNELLS: And the actress who played your daughter, Mckenna Grace, she’s not actually 17, right?

WILLIAMS: She’s 18.

RANNELLS: Jesus. So, having also started at a very young age, did you feel a certain protectiveness of her?

WILLIAMS: I did. Objectively, she has more experience than me because she’s been acting since she was little. But it was her first time EP-ing as a legal adult, so I wanted to make sure that she was getting
access to the same stuff that the rest of us were.

RANNELLS: It’s good that you had eyes on that, because that’s not always the case.

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

RANNELLS: We weren’t kids on Girls, but because it was a lot of our first jobs, I didn’t really know what to expect. I didn’t know what I should be asking for.

WILLIAMS: It’s so true.

RANNELLS: It was interesting to watch—particularly in relation to Adam Driver’s career.

WILLIAMS: [Laughs] That was crazy. One year between seasons, suddenly he was like, “Yeah, I’m going to be in Star Wars now.” We were like, “Okay.”

RANNELLS: “What?” I know.

WILLIAMS: First, he was in Lincoln; I remember that was a really big deal. We were in our own little bubble in Brooklyn, and then suddenly he was going off to Hollywood.

RANNELLS: Wait. I have a very important question. What does Scott Eastwood smell like?

WILLIAMS: [Laughs]

RANNELLS: It is like leather and—

WILLIAMS: I have no recollection. And I know I’m disappointing Swifties everywhere, because one of my favorite memories from the shoot was when we were hanging in the holding room for the cast, and someone very casually was like, “Scott was in ‘Wildest Dreams.’” And Mckenna freaked out. She had not connected that the guy who had just played her dad is the guy she had lusted for in that music video. So anyway, if I had to guess what he smells like, it would be the sun. He’s very sun-kissed. I think of him sitting out at base camp in an armchair.

RANNELLS: Just lying out.

WILLIAMS: Literally. He has surfer vibes.

RANNELLS: Well, I had to ask the question for the greater good of people. Now, will there be more producing in your future?

WILLIAMS: I think so. It’s just an affinity for a certain way of doing this job. I feel very weird asking for the things I need if I’m not also an EP. I like to have maximum investment in the things that I’m part of. Do you find it as addictive as I do?

RANNELLS: I do. I really like the development process, although it can be maddening because things take so long.

WILLIAMS: Totally.

RANNELLS: I like being able to talk to a writer about the script, and giving notes, and shaping the story. And this might sound crazy—I like pitching. I like talking to people about what the possibilities of a project might be. Sometimes actors who want to also be producers get a bad rep, because it seems like it’s out of self-interest. But you’re going to get a better performance out of the actor if they feel more invested.

WILLIAMS: Totally. Anytime in my career where I’ve been told to care less, I’ve been like, “You fundamentally misunderstand my wiring.” You don’t hire me because you’re like, “I want someone cool and casual that’s going to keep me guessing if she’s going to show up at work every day.” No. I can only be part of things that I care about 110 percent, regardless of if I have a title.

RANNELLS: I agree. Have you seen this movie with an audience yet?

WILLIAMS: I’ve read every comment card and all of that stuff, but I haven’t seen it.

RANNELLS: You’ve read all the comment cards?

WILLIAMS: I know, there’s something wrong with me. I feel like, if I’m going to ask to be part of all of the creative discussions, I need to also be there for the big-girl parts of it, where I have to put my ego somewhere in a drawer. Which is not possible, by the way. It’s really hard not to internalize stuff you read about your own performance. But, it’s ultimately really helpful, and it makes me better at my job. The movie has played so well, and one of the things that’s been really surprising to me, from everyone I’ve talked to, is that it’s a very interactive movie. The audience is audibly gasping, there’s a lot of crying, but also a lot of cheering. I’m so excited to see it in a theater.

RANNELLS: Will you sneak into a theater and watch it at the Paramus Mall or something?

WILLIAMS: [Laughs] I’ll see it for the first time with a live audience at the premiere. At a premiere, everyone knows where you’re sitting, and they know to be polite. But if you just go to an AMC showing of the movie, it’s like being on Reddit in real life.

RANNELLS: Why do we do this to ourselves, Allison?

WILLIAMS: I think, for whatever reason, each of us has a need to entertain, or to please, or to perform. Some of us become actors, which is the strangest choice.

RANNELLS: It’s part of why the whole nepo baby thing doesn’t make a lot of sense, because if I was in that position to choose a career, I would certainly choose something that was a little more of a slam dunk.

WILLIAMS: [Laughs]

RANNELLS: It’s not easy.

WILLIAMS: Yes. It’s stressful. One of the things that is true about nepo babies, certainly for me, is that there was a floor through which I was not going to fall. There was safety netting, and that fundamentally changes your risk calculation. But a lot of people, when they’re deciding to become actors, have to really fortify themselves against the fight that’s coming the years and years of rejection, trying to figure out how to pay the bills. I certainly got luckier than most. The way Girls happened is so crazy.

RANNELLS: At this point it’s safe to say that your work is what is keeping you going. You would not be here if you were not extremely talented, and you’re obviously a very hard worker, and wanted it very much.

WILLIAMS: You’re very nice.

RANNELLS: Right back at you, my friend. Do you remember when we would joke around on set and we’d be like, “Can you give me a face read?”

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. My face reads are currently pretty limited by Botox; I wouldn’t be able to show you much. We’ve got to let these puppies relax between projects.

RANNELLS: I might have to jump on that bandwagon at some point.

WILLIAMS: You have not? It’s rude that your skin looks like that with nothing in it. I want to touch it.

RANNELLS: I’m a real Eastwood when it comes to the sun, just lying out with no protection. Well, I can’t wait to see this movie.

WILLIAMS: Thank you for doing this. I hope I get to interview you someday.

RANNELLS: I wish we could do a live one. Zosia [Mamet] asked me to interview her at the 92nd Street Y in September. Come, if you’re in New York.

WILLIAMS: Oh my god, I haven’t seen Zosh in literally years. It would make me so happy to be back together.

RANNELLS: There is also the misperception that we all live together on a compound?

WILLIAMS: [Laughs] Honestly, I’d love that.

RANNELLS: It’s crazy to think that the pilot was 15 years ago.

WILLIAMS: Where did that time go? I can’t account for all those years.

RANNELLS: If you really think about it, you made a human. You made a lot of amazing work. You’re married now. You have a lot going on.

WILLIAMS: Yeah. And what an honor to have shared so many of those years with you.

RANNELLS: More, please!

———

Hair: Marty Harper using Vegamour at The Wall Group.

Makeup: Janessa Paré using Merit Beauty at Streeters.

Nails: Pattie Yankee using Pattie Yankee products at Opus Beauty.

Photography Assistants: Rebecca Sreighner and Sonja Briney.

Fashion Assistant: Iria Palma.

Production Coordination: Tyler Demauro.

Production Assistant: Abby Lorenzini.

Special Thanks: Deb Tam at Radish.