A clip from Michelle Williams’ narration of Britney Spears’ memoir is going viral, with the actor’s imitation of Justin Timberlake delighting social media users.
Spears’ book, The Woman in Me, was published Tuesday by Gallery Books and became an instant bestseller. One clip from the audiobook edition, read by Oscar-nominated actor Williams, has been making the rounds on X, formerly known as Twitter.
five time academy award nominee michelle williams saying “fo-shiz fo-shiz what’s up homie!” is art pic.twitter.com/mGhbI5txHc
— 𝔧𝔬𝔰𝔥𝔲𝔞 (@joshcharles_21) October 24, 2023
In the clip, Williams reads from a section describing an encounter that Timberlake, her boyfriend at the time, had with a hip-hop star. In the book, Spears notes that Timberlake’s band, NSYNC, “loved hip-hop” but, in her estimation, “sometimes…tried too hard to fit in.”
“One day, J and I were in New York, going to parts of town I’d never been to before,” Williams reads. “Walking our way was a guy with a huge blinged-out medallion. He was flanked by two giant security guards. J got all excited and said so loud, ‘Oh, yeah! Fo’ shiz, fo’ shiz, Ginuwine! What’s up, homie?’”
After Ginuwine left, Spears’ assistant at the time mocked Timberlake, doing an impression of the singer’s enthusiastic greeting. “J wasn’t even embarrassed,” Williams reads. “He just took it and looked at her like, OK, fuck you.”
On X, people shared their delight at the clip, with one user writing, “michelle williams deserves an honorary egot for having to read this.”
Another invoked Williams’ performance in The Fabelmans, posting, “Michelle Williams can go from playing Steven Spielberg’s mom to doing this, and that’s called talent baby.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.