The 'Mean Girls' star shared her and Williams' reactions when the latter was approached to narrate Spears' audiobook.
Busy Philipps is just as proud of her bestie Michelle Williams' narration of Britney Spears' audiobook as the rest of us. On Tuesday, the Mean Girls star appeared on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen and shared some backstory to Williams being asked to read for the audio version of Spears' memoir, The Woman in Me.
When asked about her reaction to Williams' narration, Philipps, 44, said that she knew Williams "really felt a connection" to the pop icon's story and encouraged her former Dawson's Creek co-star, 43, to take on the project.
"I mean, we lost it," Philipps said. "She was like, 'I have to do this. Right?' I was like, 'Yes! Obviously!' And she's like, 'I really do, Biz.' She really felt a connection."
The Girls5eva star explained that she and Williams saw their own stories reflected in Spears' memoir, in which the 41-year-old singer candidly writes about her childhood, career, high-profile romance with Justin Timberlake and her conservatorship.
Philipps, who has also written a memoir chronicling her rise towards superstardom in 2018's This Will Only Hurt a Little, added, "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.
"I think that there was a lot that was sadly very relatable to all women in Britney's book, but I thought that Michelle doing it was just incredible and really beautiful," she noted.
The mom of two added that she believes "Britney deserves our respect" and wishes her peace and happiness.
Simon & Schuster Audio announced that Williams was the audiobook's narrator ahead of the book's mid-October release, with Spears saying in a statement that she was "grateful" to the Fabelmans star for taking up the role.
"This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it," Spears said in a news release. "Reliving everything has been exciting, heart-wrenching, and emotional, to say the least. For those reasons, I will only be reading a small part of my audiobook. I am so grateful to the amazing Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it."
In the same news release, Williams voiced her solidarity with Spears.
"I stand with Britney," the actress said.
The Woman in Me was released on Oct. 24 and created major waves for some of the topics addressed within the pages.
The "Toxic" singer did not hold back while writing the book, addressing everything from an alleged at-home abortion during her relationship with Timberlake to her marriage to Kevin Federline to almost scoring the coveted role of Allie Hamilton opposite Ryan Gosling in The Notebook.
"[She's] feeling excited and relieved about releasing her book," a source previously told ET of Spears, with another source adding, "She feels like a huge weight has been lifted off her shoulders. She is looking forward to finally voicing her story in such a big way. She's not feeling nervous at all and she's actually very eager to get it out there."
Despite his split with Spears before the book's release, the singer's estranged husband, Sam Asghari, told TMZ that he had read the memoir and was "very proud" of her.
"She put a lot of work to it, and it was very hard," he said. "I'm definitely excited and I'm extremely proud of her. It was a really tough one... I'll be the first one in line to buy it."
ET has a complete guide to every bombshell from The Woman in Me, now out in stores and online.
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