Let’s go, ladies! Amid Britney Spears’ rise to the pop charts, she made her function movie debut in 2002’s Crossroads.
“I used to be far more within the younger girl that I met than the picture that folks had of her,” screenwriter Shonda Rhimes — who penned the script earlier than her Gray’s Anatomy or Bridgerton fame — recalled to Vice’s Broadly in 2016 of the “Circus” songstress. “She was an individual, and I don’t suppose anybody on the time was her — as a result of it’s such a misogynistic society — as an individual. The concept that we may painting her as a three-dimensional younger girl was fascinating to me. To have mean-girled her and turned her right into a caricature would have been a mistake.”
The movie, directed by Tamra Davis, adopted three highschool graduates, performed by Spears, Zoe Saldana and Taryn Manning, as they street tripped throughout the nation from their Louisiana hometown to sunny Los Angeles for varied private {and professional} causes. Within the course of, they every uncover their very own identities and deepen their friendship.
“I’ve not spoken to Britney in 10 years, however we had an incredible time on Crossroads,” the Orange Is the New Black alum — who performed Mimi within the 2000s traditional — completely advised Us Weekly in September 2021. “We spent months within the automobile that we took ‘cross nation’ sharing tales, joking, laughing and had a friendship for years, particularly whereas filming. I want her solely one of the best and am so comfortable concerning the progress of this week [amid her conservatorship case]. Nothing however love for Brit!”
The movie additionally starred the likes of Kim Cattrall, Dan Aykroyd and Justin Lengthy to spherical out the solid of Spears’ character Lucy’s household and mates.
“I simply bear in mind [Britney] being so good,” Lengthy, who performed Lucy’s lab accomplice Henry within the movie — the one her character tried to lose her virginity to — advised Us in Could 2020. “She simply appeared, like, such a down-to-earth [person]. I bear in mind being so disarmed by how regular she appeared. It was on the peak of her fame, and, like, everybody else, I used to be inundated by pictures of her. She was so in style, so well-known.”
The Accepted actor added: “You all the time simply kind of assume that [fame] modifications folks, or they act, I don’t know, bigger than life. They act in a grandiose manner — and she or he actually didn’t. She was simply actually, actually candy and form of regular. That’s what I bear in mind.”
The movie, which featured Spears’ vocals on “I’m Not a Lady, Not But a Girl” and her cowl of “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll,” celebrated its twentieth anniversary in February 2022.
“I believe there was in all probability more cash within the music than there was within the movie,” Davis advised Selection on the time of its milestone anniversary. “However I additionally suppose it took a number of the strain off. We needed to make this cool, indie, street journey chick flick and never attempt to be all polished and puffy.”
She continued: “I understand how a lot Crossroads meant to [Britney] — she’s advised me and she or he’s advised [producer] Ann Carli that it was one of the vital unimaginable experiences and really impactful months in her life.”
Scroll beneath to see what the Crossroads solid has been as much as because the flick was made: