Destiny's Child's Michelle Williams is being trolled over Michelle Williams' Emmy speech

Michelle Williams is being mistaken for Michelle Williams (Credit: Getty)
Michelle Williams is being mistaken for Michelle Williams (Credit: Getty)

Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child is suffering from a case of mistaken identity - people think she’s the actor Michelle Williams.

Or more specifically, people have mistaken the singer, 40, on social media for the Emmy winning star and have been bombarding her feed with impolite messages.

Williams, the 39-year-old actor, made a powerful speech on Sunday night after winning for her role in Fosse/Verdon, where she spoke of the importance of empowering women, “especially women of colour,” in the workplace.

The Emmy winner does not have any social media accounts but her namesake does and is not happy about being bombarded with messages.

"I am trying to figure out, 'Why in the world am I getting cursed out in my comments for Michelle Williams' speech?' which I thought was her truth. I thought it was awesome," Williams said during an Instagram Live video.

"I thought she was factual – I could be wrong – but yeah, I just told this woman a few minutes ago on my Instagram, I was like, 'I’m so sorry that my namesake upset you, but can’t you see that I’m black?'"

"How come when y’all are tagging and congratulating a person, do y’all see that I’m black?" Williams added.

Read more: Peter Dinklage’s Emmy speech cut

"When you go to my profile, you search for the 'Michelle Williams,' I am black. OK? I ain’t mixed with nothing; I ain’t mixed with Persian, Russian, I am black."

Williams, the actor, won an Emmy for best lead actress in a limited series or movie for her role of Gwen Verdon on FX's Fosse/Verdon.

During her acceptance speech, she thanked FX and Fox 21 TV Studios for listening to her needs during the shoot explaining that her team "understood that when you put value in a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value and where do they put that value? They put it into their work."

Read more: James Wan’s new horror is called Malignant

She added: "Next time a woman – and especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterpart – tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her, believe her.

“Because one day she might stand in front of you and say thank you for allowing her to succeed because of her workplace environment and not in spite of it."