Michelle Williams struggled with youth

Michelle Williams felt as if she “couldn’t manage life” when she was younger.

The 31-year-old actress who left home at the age of 15 and then applied for legal emancipation from her parents so she could work without their consent admitted she often saw herself as “losing all the time” because she had no life skills.

“Whenever I think about that period of time, I just think it’s amazing that I’m as intact as I am,” she said.

“For the longest time I felt like I was just losing all the time, flailing, losing, flailing, losing. Like I just couldn’t manage life because I was trying, but without any life skills or guidance for it.

“I know it seems like an obvious thing, but I didn’t know you had to go see the dentist. I didn’t go to the dentist for 10 years. I couldn’t make anything when I moved out. I remember learning how to boil water and splashing my face with it when it was scalding hot.”

After portraying Jen Lindley in teen drama Dawson’s Creek for five years, the My Week With Marilyn star explained she found the role “abrasive” as her alter-ego didn’t have to cope with the “struggles” in life that she did.

“I felt it really strongly at the time: this isn’t what it’s like to be a teenager, this isn’t really what it’s like to struggle. And that was abrasive to something in me, ” Michelle added.

“After that, all I wanted to do was make work that felt as though you could reach out and touch it, relate to it. I wanted to make things that looked as close to life as possible, nothing that had a gloss on it.”