Michelle Williams‘ impression of Justin Timberlake deserves an Oscar fo’ shiz.
“The Fabelmans” and “Brokeback Mountain” actor narrates the audio edition of Britney Spears’ memoir, “The Woman in Me,” which dropped Tuesday. Spears reads only the introduction and prologue, then lets Williams take it from there.
“This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it,” Spears says at the beginning of the book. “Reliving everything that you’re about to hear has been exciting, heart wrenching and emotional to say the least. For those reasons, I will only be reading a small part of my audio book. I’m so grateful to the amazing Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it and to you for listening.”
Spears seems to have picked the perfect person to narrate her story, as Williams is already going viral for her impression of Timberlake, whose relationship with Spears is detailed in both agonizing and hilarious detail. In one scene, Spears writes about the former boy-band member trying to impress singer Ginuwine in New York City, and Williams narrates what he said with a certain flair that has social media calling the snippet “the greatest clip of audio since Watergate.”
“His band *NSYNC was back then what people called ‘so pimp.’ They were white boys but they loved hip-hop. To me, that’s what separated them from the Backstreet Boys, who seemed very consciously to position themselves as a white group,” Spears wrote. “*NSYNC hung out with Black artists. Sometimes I thought they tried too hard to fit in.
“One day J and I were in New York, going to parts of town I had never been to before. 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 walked away, [Spears’ longtime assistant] Felicia did an impression of J … J wasn’t even embarrassed. He just took it and looked at her like, ‘OK, f— you Fe.’”
“The Woman in Me,” which reportedly came out of a $15-million deal with Gallery Books, an imprint of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, hit bookstore shelves Oct. 24, and the audiobook was published simultaneously with other editions. Spears said in late September that she was “doing the [finishing] touches on it” and has previously described the writing process as “hard,” “healing” and “therapeutic.”
“I stand with Britney,” Williams said in a statement from Simon & Schuster Audio. A representative for the Oscar-nominated star did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for further comment.
