Hard to imagine, but on the morning Oscar nominations were announced, Michelle Williams had blanked on the significance of the day and was in the midst of her daily routine: Getting 6-year-old daughter Matilda up and ready, putting on her snowsuit -- the usual mom things. She was visiting a friend's house for breakfast, standing outside and looking around when the friend opened the door and leaned out, saying, "Michelle, they just called your name on TV."

As Williams told TODAY's Ann Curry on Thursday, "It was a very sweet way to hear that news."

She added, "It slipped my mind, which is something that's so great about having a kid. You get really absorbed."

Williams, whose nomination comes from playing Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn," has a very close relationship with her daughter (Matilda's dad is the late Heath Ledger), and even thanked her from the stage at the Golden Globes this year.

"She gives me balance, and I know that any risks that I take in my work are actually safe, because nothing really bad can happen there. My success as a parent is what matters most to me," explained Williams.

Not to say that Williams doesn't give it all to prepare for a role; for Marilyn, she said she spent at least 10 months preparing to play both Marilyn Monroe, the celebrity, and Norma Jean, the person inside. On top of all of that, she even sings in the film. The prep, she said, "felt endless! In some ways, I feel like I'm still doing it. You know, so much information that comes out about Marilyn, more information every day it seems like ... I was steeping in information. There's no end to it."

Yet with all of that research, and for all of the accolades she's received from the portrayal, Williams says compliments still give her "a sense of shock." She may be up for an Oscar in February (this is Williams' third nomination) but as she said, the truth is, "There were so many days I just didn't know what I was doing. But I feel like I never really know!"

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The Weinstein Company

Michelle Williams delves into Marilyn Monroe and comes up with the lost girl inside the bombshell.

We remain so fascinated with Marilyn Monroe that a film can be made about just one week in her life and draw crowds and critical raves. (Imagine a movie made about a week in your life. Mine would include a lot of commuting, some random grocery shopping, preschooler wrangling and maybe some reading. One-way ticket to thrillsville it's not.)

This particular week took place in London in 1956, and we come at it through the experience of Colin Clark, who wrote two books based on the one week he spent as an entry-level worker on Monroe's film, "The Prince and the Showgirl."

Clark's experience is so pulled-from-a-fan's-dream that it's reminiscent of those fan fiction stories featuring characters dubbed "Mary Sues," in which the writer suddenly appears on the Star Trek Enterprise or something and saves the day. He's naive and inexperienced, and perhaps those very qualities draw Monroe to him. Soon he's the only one who can comfort the actress as she struggles with a blustery Sir Laurence Olivier (an excellent Kenneth Branagh), who's no fan of the bombshell's constant lateness or her everpresent acting coach.

Eddie Redmayne does a fine job as Clark, all freckles and blushes and gee-whiz-Miss-Monroe. But it's Michelle Williams who has to carry this film, and she's a revelation as the starlet whose childhood abandonment issues still cling to her even as fans deluge her in the street. Perhaps it's the British setting, but it's hard not to compare Monroe to the late Princess Diana here. She can turn on the charm for a crowd of Eton schoolboys begging for autographs, but when she's alone, she's as tormented as a pimply teen.

History lovers will also enjoy rating and ruminating over the casting of historical figures, including Julia Ormond as Olivier's wife Vivien Leigh and Dougray Scott as Monroe's impatient husband, playwright Arthur Miller. But it's Judi Dench who has the most sympathetic role, as Dame Sybil Thorndike, a grande dame British actress who has the courage to sail forth as Monroe's only champion when the movie cast and crew seem to turn against her.

The film was Williams' to win or lose, and it's likely we'll see her name on the list of Oscar best-actress nominations in early 2012. 

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