The day felt pretty surreal even before I met Britney Spears. The previous night was the Oscar ceremony, and I’d stayed up to watch all five hours of TV coverage. After three hours sleep, I hauled myself from confused dreams of designer dresses and tearful acceptance speeches to head for Knightsbridge.
Outside the hotel, 40-odd people were gathered with notebooks and cameras. I stood patiently for 10 minutes, yawning, before wondering whether I should check what was going on. I approached one of the hotel’s porters. “Um, I’m here for the press conference?” He waved me in. Safely inside there were fewer 10 years olds (that should have been a clue), but the same palpable air of excitement.
Unlike the hapless fans in Leicester Square, forced to wait an hour in vain for their idol at the Crossroads premiere later that night, we had only a few minutes to kill before Britney made her appearance. Also in attendance were co-star Anson Mount, producer Ann Carli, Britney’s bodyguard (who’s as wide as he is tall), and a retinue of nearly a dozen hairdressers, make-up artists and assistants.
We’d already been warned to stay off the subject of on-off boyfriend Justin Timberlake, virginity and September 11 (begging the question “what were you and Justin doing on September 11th?”). So that left little option other than to talk about her new film, Crossroads.
The movie, Britney’s first, is a teenage rite-of-passage road movie. Britney, as Lucy, sets off for LA with her two childhood friends ‘in search of their destinies’. Lucy is the school valedictorian, who realises that while she spent her high-school years swotting, she could have been having fun instead. Lamenting her misspent youth, she also wants to find her estranged mother and lose her virginity. One of the movie’s best lines comes early on as Lucy and her nerdy boyfriend try to make good a pact to rid each other of their chastity on graduation night. Lucy, clad in lacy pink underwear, blonde hair shining, advances towards the bed. Nerdy boyfriend’s white skin gleams, he licks his lips and cracks his knuckles. There’s a painful silence. “This isn’t exactly how I hoped it would be,” falters Lucy. “Oh. This is EXACTLY how I hoped it would be,” says puny boyfriend.
Britney doesn’t make a convincing school swot, but no matter. The movie opens with a lengthy scene of her writhing around her bedroom - clad only in her underwear - miming to a Madonna song. Clearly there’s more to Lucy than just good grades. She soon leaves her small town and her nerdy boyfriend behind, and sets off with two girlfriends and the mysterious and devilishly handsome Ben to drive cross country. Along the way she finds heartbreak, friendship, music, poetry and love.
So what was it about this movie that attracted Britney? “I really loved the whole moral of Crossroads. I was really inspired by the script, and by the friendship that the girls had, and just knowing that they all had their differences but at the end of the day they had each other,” she explains
In real life, Spears is bright and engaging, and giggles frequently. She looks immaculate, but apart from her designer clothes, it’s hard to separate her onscreen persona from the girl sitting in front of us. Nonetheless both she and producer Ann Carli are quick to deny that there is an autobiographical element to this tale of a teenage virgin who has a great singing voice. Britney does admit to being able to relate to her character. Like the film’s heroine, Britney has two close female friends, and she too comes from a small southern town which she left to seek her fortune in a big city. “But the whole movie is all fiction.”
Producer Carli likens Spears to Will Smith, with whom she worked early on in the Oscar-nominated actor’s career. “I’d seen [Britney] on Saturday Night Live and I thought that she had something. I don’t think all music stars can necessarily cross over, but I’d worked with Will Smith at the beginning of his career, and I thought then he’s going to be a big star. And I had the same kind of feeling about Britney.”
Anson Mount too paid generous tribute to his co-star. “She was a real pro, a real delight,” before revealing that none other than Robert De Niro is also a fan. “I was working on City by the Sea with Robert De Niro when I got the script for Crossroads. I was reading it between takes, and Bob came up to me and goes ‘What are you doing?’ and so I said ‘errr it’s this movie and Britney Spears is doing it, I’m not even sure if I’m going to do it, I’m just reading it...’ and he goes ‘Why not? She’s great.’ So I showed him the script, and he read Britney’s lines to my Ben.
“It wasn’t the kissing scene,” he adds.
Britney hopes that the film, which touches on issues of teenage pregnancy, infidelity, and absent parents, reassures teenagers that whatever they’re going through, “if you have your friends and can talk about it then you’re not alone.”
So what next? She admits that although music is her ‘heart and soul’, “acting is so much fun I kind of want to focus on that right now.” Two projects are in development, one ‘an intense relationship movie’, and the other an ‘ensemble multi-generational dramatic piece.’ “I would love to do a romantic comedy, where I can make people laugh and have fun,” says Spears, adding that she would also like to “do more challenging roles and stretch myself as an actress.”
So could we be seeing her name among future Oscar nominees? She giggles. “Sure. That would be cool. It’s something to dream about.” Now that really would be surreal.
Audio clips
Britney Spears on what drew her to Crossroads (18sec)
Co-star Anson Mount on working with Britney (21sec)
Britney on choosing between films and music (13sec)
Britney on what motivates her (16sec)
