Actress Michelle Williams has gone viral on social media for a surreal moment in her narration of Britney Spears’ new memoir, The Woman in Me.
In her new memoir, Spears pens a cringeworthy anecdote with her then-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, in which they ran into R&B singer Ginuwine in New York City. According to the book, Timberlake said, “Oh yeah, fo-shiz, fo-shiz! Ginuwine! What’s up, homie?”
While narrating the audiobook version of Spears’ memoir, Williams attempted to mimic what Timberlake must have sounded like when he said that. The clip of the Dawson’s Creek star’s performance was quickly isolated and posted to social media, where it got a big reaction.
Listen Below:
five time academy award nominee michelle williams saying “fo-shiz fo-shiz what’s up homie!” is art pic.twitter.com/mGhbI5txHc
— (@joshcharles_21) October 24, 2023
In The Woman in Me, released Tuesday, Spears wrote that Timberlake and the other members of the boy band NSYNC “tried too hard” to fit in with black artists, illustrating the point with this interaction between Timberlake and Ginuwine.
“His band, NSYNC, was what people back then called ‘so pimp.’ They were white boys, but they loved hip hop,” Spears wrote. “To me, that’s what separated them from the Backstreet Boys, who seemed very consciously to position themselves as a white group. NSYNC hung out with black artists.”
Spears went on to say, “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’d 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! Ginuwiiiine! What’s up, homie?’” she wrote.
“After Ginuwine walked away, Felicia [Culotta, then Spears’ assistant] did an impression of J. ‘Oh yeah, fo-shiz, fo-shiz, Ginuwiiiine!’ J wasn’t even embarrassed. He just took it, and looked at her, like, ‘Okay, fuck you,’” the pop star added.
Fans quickly took to social media to react to Williams reciting the cringeworthy “fo-shiz” line from the pop star’s book.
“Five time academy award nominee Michelle Williams saying ‘fo-shiz fo-shiz what’s up homie!’ is art,” one X/Twitter user reacted.
“lol Brit got my white sister Michelle Williams saying WHAT!” another laughed.
“Michelle’s delivery accurately depicts just how corny and deplorable Justin has always been,” a third wrote.
“Michelle Williams is going to get a Grammy for this,” another commented.
Another commenter simply stated, “Cringe.”
“Nothing can prepare you for these 15 seconds of Michelle Williams doing a Justin Timberlake impression as written by Britney Spears,” another quipped.
“Can we get Morgan Freeman to read it next?” another X user asked.
Spears and Timberlake dated from 1999 to 2002.
Elsewhere in her memoir, the pop star revealed that she reluctantly had a secret at-home abortion after conceiving a child with Timberlake, who made it clear that he did not want her to keep the baby. Spears described her self-administered home abortion as a regrettable and torturous experience.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.