'I couldn't stop touching people's faces': Michelle Williams on how she dealt with grief after the death of Heath Ledger as she strikes a Monroe pose

By Alanah Eriksen
Updated: 11:57 EST, 13 September 2011

It was two years before she opened up about the sudden death of her ex-fiance Heath Ledger.

And Michelle Williams said in January she regretted finally sharing her feelings in an interview a month before.

But the 31-year-old, mother to the actor's daughter Matilda, has now candidly opened up about how she dealt with her grief.

She's a dead ringer: The October Vogue issue featuring Michelle Williams styled as Marilyn Monroe

Michelle is featured on the October cover of Vogue, styled as Marilyn Monroe.

She plays the fifties pinup in her new movie, My Week With Marilyn, which focuses on the time the star spent being shown around London by British filmmaker Colin Clark.

The actress looks stunning in a strapy cream dress as she fiddles with her diamond earrings. Her blonde hair is swept into Marilyn's trademark curls, her lips are plumped with bright red lipstick and a beauty spot has been painted on her cheek, reminiscent of the icon.

On the cover shot she dons an equally stunning pink gown with the same earrings.

In another pose, Michelle lays on a checked couch reading a book, wearing a brown cardigan and checked trousers.

She's smart as well: The look was recreated by famous photographer Annie Leibovitz to promote Michelle's new movie My Week With Marilyn in which the star plays the fifties pinup

Michelle told the magazine that she treasured every moment of her life after Heath died from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January 2008.

'For a really long time, I couldn’t stop touching people’s faces. I was like, ‘Look at you. You move. You’re here.’ It all just seemed so fleeting, and I wanted to hold on to it.'

On how her and her daughter's lives had been turned upside down, Michelle added: 'Three years ago, it felt like we didn’t have anything, and now my life — our life — has kind of repaired itself.

Candid: In an interview with the magazine, Michelle revealed taht after her ex-fiance Heath ledger's death, she kept touching people's faces to check they were really 'here' as life seemed so fleeting

'Look, it’s not a perfectly operating system, there are holes and dips and electrical storms, but the basics are intact.

'[The death has] changed how I see the world and how I interact on a daily basis. It’s changed the parent I am. It’s changed the friend I am.

'It’s changed the kind of work that I really want to do. It’s become the lens through which I see life — that it’s all impermanent.'

Michelle also talked about gaining weight to play Marilyn.

Sadly missed: Michelle had split with Heath Ledger when he died in January 2008

'Unfortunately, it went right to my face,' she said.

'So at some point it became a question of, Do I want my face to look like Marilyn Monroe’s or my hips?

'It felt like being reborn. It felt like breaking my body and remaking it in her image, learning how she walked and talked and held her head. None of that existed in my physical memory, and I knew I needed as much time as possible to make it part of me.'

Michelle said she initially didn't want to play the role, saying it was too daunting and after reading the script, spent six months trying to talk herself out of it.

She admitted that she grew up with pictures of Monroe on her bedroom wall.

'I had one of her in a field of trees in Roxbury, Connecticut. She’s wearing a white dress and she’s barefoot and she’s got her arms spread and she’s laughing.

'There was just something about that image of her—so lovely and joyful and free. I’ve always thought of her as that woman-child, not an icon, which is probably why I let myself approach the role.'

The actress bares an uncanny resemblance to her idol, shown in a number of pictures of her styled like the icon.

In one shot, released earlier this year, she is surrounded by burly policemen, minders and pushy photographers, but is an image of aloof glamour amongst the bustle.

First glimpse: The actress was seen depicted as the icon in a picture earlier this year

Clutching a bouquet of flowers with her husband Arthur Miller, played by Dougray Scott, trailing in her wake, the actress is escorted away from the excited British journalists.

My Week with Marilyn, which is released on November 4, also stars Judi Dench as Sybil Thorndike, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh, Dominic Cooper as Monroe's manager Milton Greene, and Emma Watson as wardrobe assistant Lucy.

The October issue of Vogue is out on September 20.

Striking: Surrounded by burly policemen, minders and pushy photographers, Michelle is an image of aloof glamour amongst the bustle - just like Marilyn

Recreation: The image recreates Monroe's arrival with husband Arthur Miller in London in 1956 to film Laurence Olivier's The Prince and the Showgirl

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