Flitting between s/s 2017’s pretty dresses and louche tailoring, Allison Williams is fun, fascinating and nothing like her Girls persona Marnie

Words: Helen Bownass
Photography: Catherine Servel
Fashion: Arabella Greenhill
Photography Direction: Tom Gormer

In the game of ‘which Girls character do you most want to be?’ chances are the answer is probably not Marnie Michaels. The Uptight, Self-obsessed, Judgemental one. In the game of which Girl do you want to be in real life though, I’m calling shotgun on Allison Williams, who plays her. For Williams is wildly self-aware and self- deprecating, referring often to her type A personality. She is philanthropic, hugely and quietly so. In our interview, she’s incredibly earnest and thoughtful, talking eloquently about incarceration and radical feminism. But she is also pure fun. These are some of the topics we discussed during Stylist’s shoot on a sunny yet freezing New York day:

Food. Her diet is the most un-Hollywood thing ever. She rattles off her won’t-consume list which includes: anything from the ocean, any weird animal parts, rabbits, radicchio, anything citrus-flavoured, alcohol... Her daily breakfast (which she brings to the studio) is an iced doughnut, while at lunchtime she looks forlorn as the pizza is too fussy for her tastes: it comes with two types of cheese.
Astronomy. Williams is remarkably well versed in star spotting (of the actual luminous ball of gas variant), anthropology and dinosaurs – her favourite is the brachiosaurus.
The cheap perfume she wears. “It’s from a range called Body Fantasies,” she explains. “You could walk into [US drugstore] Duane Reade right now and buy it.”
The hotness of Jamie Dornan.
Her sleeping habits. She is a night owl and regularly stays up working until 3am. Her dad, NBC anchorman Brian Williams, and brother Doug are the same. Her husband, internet entrepreneur Ricky Van Veen, is not.
Her viewing habits. Her family have a Christmas tradition of watching Love Actually and she adores The Bachelor – indeed she recently flew herself out to LA to be on the show’s panel. “It’s my religion,” she laughs.

This is a girl's world: Stylist finds out why Allison Williams is nothing like her Girls persona Marnie