Michelle-Williams-Britney-Spears
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Michelle Williams attends the 95th Annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Academy Award nominee Michelle Willams is a woman of many talents.

Her expansive work spans performances as Marilyn Monroe, a fictionalised version of Steven Spielberg’s mother and the wife of a closeted cowboy in the late 60s Wyoming. Now, Williams can add another robust role to her list of accolades: impersonating Justin Timberlake’s attempts at a blaccent.

For the uninitiated, Williams has lent her voice to the audiobook version of Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman In Me. Spears revealed the reason for giving her story over to Williams to tell on her behalf was because the contents of the memoir were too emotional for her to relive by reading aloud.

Though Williams’ cooler Montana accent is far from the infliction of Spears’ southern Mississippi drawl, the faintly aloof approach to detailing the darkest moments of Spears’ life has resulted in some rightfully viral moments. Of course, none more widely-discussed than Williams’ meta-like impersonation of a young Justin Timberlake adopting a blaccent to impress singer Ginuwine with his street-talk know-how. 

The second-hand embarrassment discerned through your screen—and Apple AirPod Maxes—when listening to the snippet is palpable, however, it’s the perfect antidote to break up the distressing subject matter.

The excerpt reads: “Sometimes I thought they [NSYNC] tried too hard to fit in. One day J [Justin Timberlake] 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 yeahhh, fo-shiz fo-shiz, Ginuwiiine, what’s up homie!’”

Listen to Michelle Williams’ version for yourself below.

Naturally, netizens have run rampant with this segment on social media. Michelle Williams mimicking Timberlake’s embarrassing attempts to replicate Black vernacular wasn’t on our 2023 bingo cards. Perhaps Williams was channelling her character Gwen Verdon from Fosse/Verdon and was just giving us “the ‘ol razzle dazzle”, fo-shiz. 

The Best Reactions To Michelle Williams Justin Timberlake Impersonation In Britney Spears’ Memoir Audiobook

topics: Michelle Williams, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake

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