Britney Spears released one of the biggest celebrity memoirs of 2023 with The Woman in Me, and her loyal fans devoured the pop star’s account of her infamous breakup with Justin Timberlake, her days on the Mickey Mouse Club and, of course, the 13 years she spent under the conservatorship of her father. In addition to The Woman in Me’s biggest revelations, readers heaped praise on the audiobook, which was narrated by five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams. It turns out Williams felt a “connection” to the material, according to Busy Philipps, who spoke about why Spears’ experience was relatable to her longtime BFF.
Michelle Williams and Busy Philipps have been best friends since the latter joined the cast of Dawson’s Creek in 2001. Both actresses came to fame around the same time as Britney Spears, in the late ‘90s and early aughts, and Philipps said having that shared experience made the opportunity to narrate The Woman in Me something Williams couldn’t pass up. The Mean Girls actress recalled being so excited when that job offer came in for Williams, saying in an interview on Watch What Happens Live:
We lost it. She was like, ‘I have to do this, right?’ and I was like, ‘Yes, obviously!’ She’s like, ‘I really do, Biz,’ like she really felt a connection. You know, we all — and Michelle, even younger than me — we all came up in a very particular time in this industry — that was what the majority of my memoir is about — as young women, and we were subjected to a lot, and I think that there was a lot that was really, sadly, very relatable to all women in Britney’s book.
Not only was Michelle Williams apparently really excited to contribute to Britney Spears’ memoir, she seems to have also felt a sense of duty to support another woman who had grown up in front of the cameras — especially those of the paparazzi.
Britney Spears’ encounters with the paparazzi have been well-documented — especially the infamous 2007 incident in which she attacked a photographer’s car with an umbrella — but unfortunately she wasn’t alone in how she was treated. Busy Philipps also addressed what it was like to be a young female celebrity at the time in her own memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, and others like Kylie Jenner have detailed feeling “violated” by photographers.
Michelle Williams’ passion for the project comes through in her reading, as fans have praised the way she voiced not just the Crossroads star but also the people Britney Spears wrote about in the book, including Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey. Busy Philipps sounded proud of what her friend did, telling Andy Cohen:
I thought that Michelle doing it was just incredible and really beautiful. Britney deserves our respect.
The Woman in Me is available now on all formats, including the Michelle Williams-narrated audiobook, and if you want to see more of Busy Philipps, you can catch her in the Mean Girls musical, which hits the 2024 movie calendar on January 12.
