Williams’ recent honor comes after a lush career with impactful roles in movies and TV shows like My Week with Marilyn, Fosse/Verdon, and most recently, The Fabelmans. But the actress surprised people when she accepted the Gotham Awards honor by crediting a part of her success to Peil, who played Evelyn ‘Grams’ Ryan in the WB classic series from 1998 to 2003. In a video shared by Variety, Williams said, “Whenever something good happens for me in my life, I can draw a straight line back to somebody who was meant to be here tonight but, being a New Yorker, means living in a reality that you are definitely not in control of — so she’s not in the room, but she’s in my heart, Mary Beth Peil.” She went on: “I was an emancipated minor when we met. 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. It was the way she asked questions, the way that she leaned into conversations, and how excited she seemed for every moment of every day on our TV set. And I didn’t know what this ineffable quality was, but I knew I wanted to pull my chair closer to hers.” Williams explained how Peil helped her develop a passion for acting and the arts and an understanding of how fulfilling it could be, saying that the now-82-year-old actress “showed me that creativity was more than a mere profession. And all of this vitality was miraculously turned in my direction. Her smiling face was looking at me, and she called me her girl.” The Fabelmans actress stated how, without her first role as Lindley and her relationship with Peil, she wouldn’t have been able to take on the many amazing roles after, before finishing off by saying, “I wouldn’t have known how to handle being Steven Spielberg’s mother [in The Fabelmans] without having been Mary Beth’s granddaughter, so thank you Mary Beth, and thank you Gotham Awards for this.” More News:

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