Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
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GIRL NEXT DOOR T New England native Allison Williams reveals what she's learned about life, love, and herself while starring on the most talked-about show on television, HBO's Golden Globe-winning Girls. BOSTON COMMON: Is this early for you? I heard he 20-something female's quest you like to sleep late, and 8 AM isn't easy with a busy to find meaningful love and status in the world is a subject for filming schedule. the ages. What Jane Austen Allison Williams: I do, but you know what? I began in Victorian novels took have rid myself of that preference. I'm on some sort off on television with The Mary of unknown time zone. I've been all over the Tyler Moore Show in the '70s and place—Kenya during Christmas, Paris, London. Sex and the City in the '90s. With BC: You grew up in New England. How has it Girls, Lena Dunham takes on the subject for the formed you as a person? millennial generation. Allison Williams, who AW: In a pretty substantial way. I feel I'm the prodBY GIULIA MELUCCI plays Marnie Michaels, the textbook-pretty and uct of the outdoors of New England. I was born and PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERT ASCROFT trying-desperately-to-be-perfect foil to Dunham's raised in Connecticut. I went to preschool at the fumbling Hannah Hovarth, is at the center of a New Canaan Nature Center, and a large portion of bona fide cultural phenomenon. Girls is a lightning my childhood was spent outdoors. When I was in rod. Although there's been a lot of fuss about the show's frank sexuality, elementary school, also in New Canaan, we used to tap our maple trees and what is truly provocative about Girls is its relentless exploration of motiva- make maple syrup. We would go on little trips to Rhode Island or Maine. I tions and emotions—never letting any of the characters off the hook—and am chock-full of New Englandy—and have a deep, deep affection for it. the creator's willingness to allow her heroines to be their complicated BC: Because of the particular kind of beauty there? selves, flaws and all. AW: Yes, definitely. I grew up really respecting the outdoors around me. What seems to distinguish this generation is a certain bravado that They taught it in school. We grew up respecting this part of the world, and allows Williams to be so sure of herself and Dunham to be the most talked- certainly Boston is large when you're learning US history. about artist on television. For all that progress (or is it precociousness?), the BC: Have you spent a lot of time in Boston? struggles depicted on Girls revolve around the same core issues as those of AW: Not nearly as much as I would like to. It does have that abiding New the women before them. England vibe to it, which I love. There is something unifying about being We recently got a chance to chat with Williams about her New England able to go anywhere in the area and feel you probably can play the name upbringing, how she quit struggling to be perfect, and the lessons she has game with someone or strike up a conversation with them. The accents learned from her famous father, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. alone in Boston are worth the conversation. For a woman of 24, Williams seems to have it all together, but one suspects BC: On to sexier topics: Let's talk about the show. Marnie, the character she has more to learn. If she didn't, then she'd be a bit boring—and Allison you play on Girls—we love Marnie. What do you have in common with Williams is anything but. her? What's different? 92 BOSTONCOMMON-MAGAZINE.COM 092-095_BC_F_CS_Spring13.indd 92 2/11/13 4:07 PM