The former Destiny's Child member also shared how comforting it was working with Tina Knowles, who plays her mom.
Michelle Williams is getting steamy on the small screen, and she's a little nervous about it! ET spoke with the Destiny's Child member, where she gave the inside scoop on her first leading role in the Lifetime film, Wrath: A Seven Deadly Sins Story.
An original film produced by T.D. Jakes and Shaun Robinson, the story follows single lawyer Chastity Jeffries (Williams), who meets Xavier Collins (Antonio Cupo), who seems to be everything she's looking for in a partner -- handsome, smart and an attorney as well. As his affection turns to obsession, Chastity realizes she's been swept up by Xavier’s passion and has abandoned her own principles. When his jealousy and wrath lead to suspicious actions and dangerous threats, Chastity confides in her mother, Sarah (Tina Knowles-Lawson), and turns to her ex-childhood boyfriend, Roger Thompkins (Romeo Miller).
While Williams is "so excited" about making her leading lady debut, she has a little apprehension over people seeing her onscreen love scenes.
"I met Antonio Cupo for the first time in [a] steamy scene," she revealed, joking that the crew wasted no time starting the intimate scene while she and her co-star attempted to get to know one another. She admitted that the love scenes were harder to film than her fighting scenes, noting that the former "requires you to be vulnerable in a lot of ways."
"I’m private, you know? It's just certain things that I don't want my mama and them to see, [like] me kissing on [a] guy," she added. "I think my [social media] replies are just gonna say 'Michelle . . . !' because it is a role that people haven't seen [me in]. I mean, kissing on Broadway is different!"
The singer later joked that she knows she's "the gospel girl" and people will be shocked by her in the film, but her doing the film shows "facets of a person."
"Whether you're a person of faith or not, you are sensual, you have anger, you have excitement, you make mistakes, you make bad decisions," she said. "It just shows all of who I am, all of me as a woman."
Luckily, Williams had Knowles-Lawson by her side, which the actress shared was "amazing."
"When Miss Tina came on set, to see a familiar face felt so good and so safe," she said. "I'd been there all alone, literally just me, and so I felt safe and it was so awesome."
Similar to Williams, the film is Knowles-Lawson's acting debut, which the 42-year-old applauded her real-life mother figure for embracing. "For her to do this is amazing because she has been working so hard behind the scenes for us for such a long time and now, for her to get out there doing acting, voiceover roles and live her life, is actually really beautiful," she said, calling Knowles-Lawson "a person of great wisdom and great advice."
When it comes to her character in the film, Chastity, Williams noted that she can understand the fictional woman because they share similarities.
"I know this character because I have always been protective and defensive. It's easier for me to be that versus vulnerable, saying this hurts, or I need you, you know? But I'm ready to interrogate versus just sit and pray about it before you talk about it," she admitted.
And as for her musical endeavors, Williams revealed that she does sing a bit in the film and is having "real conversation" about working on new music.
"I would love to. I recall actually having real conversation with a particular company [and] we talked about me doing some music," she said. "I hope by this year I give something musically. I love this space that I'm in right now. I'm able to create, even in a way of acting, I get to create by writing books and I get to create by being able to advocate in the topic of mental health. I have joy in this stage of life."
Wrath: A Seven Deadly Sins Story premieres April 16 at 8/7c on Lifetime.
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