Summary
- Britney Spears' film career began and ended with the coming-of-age movie Crossroads in 2002.
- Spears struggled to separate herself from her character Lucy in Crossroads, which contributed to her decision to quit acting.
- Spears auditioned for The Notebook in 2004 but lost the part to Rachel McAdams, which turned out to be a good thing since it allowed Spears to focus on her music career instead.
Although she was heavily involved in the inception of the film, Britney Spears never made another movie after 2002's songs on the Crossroads soundtrack.
Longshot was written by talent manager Lou Pearlman as a promotional tool for his lineup of musical clientele including Spears, NSYNC, and other pop acts, all of whom had cameos in the movie. Pearlman was later exposed as a scam artist and went to prison.
Crossroads was Spears' first proper movie role, and it also turned out to be her last. Spears did guest roles on Will & Grace and How I Met Your Mother and played herself in movies like Pauly Shore Is Dead and TV shows like Glee and Jane the Virgin, but she never starred in another movie as a fictional character again. In October 2023, Crossroads was rereleased in theaters to coincide with the release of Spears' memoir, The Woman in Me, in which she provided some insight into her decision to quit acting in movies for good.
Crossroads is available to stream on Netflix.
10 Best Movies Like Britney Spears' Crossroads
Britney Spears' coming-of-age film Crossroads depicts three teenagers on a road trip, and after watching the movie, fans can watch 10 just like it.
Britney Spears Couldn’t Separate Herself From Her Crossroads Character
Playing a fictional character onscreen took a toll on Spears in real life
Part of the reason that Spears decided to stop doing movies after Crossroads was because of "what acting did to [her] mind." In her memoir, Spears explained that she “didn’t know how to break out of [her] character” when the cameras stopped rolling on Crossroads and found herself unintentionally method acting. "I really became this other person," she recalled. "I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed Crossroads."
It's not hard to believe that Spears would have trouble separating herself from Lucy, given the parallels between her life and the character in the movie. Although Crossroads is not based on Spears' real life, the bond between Lucy, Kit (Zoe Saldana), and Mimi (Taryn Manning) was inspired by Spears' own female friendships. In many ways, Lucy's arc in Crossroads also resembles Spears' own journey at the time.
Spears was 19 years old in Crossroads and making the transition from teen idol to mature, adult artist. These themes were explored in the lyrics of Spears' "Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman," which Lucy writes as a poem and performs twice in Crossroads. The song also appeared on Spears' third studio album Britney, which she was working on while filming Crossroads, further blurring the lines between fiction and reality. “Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up," Spears wrote in her memoir. "After a while, you don’t know what’s real anymore.”
Britney Spears Was Almost Cast As Allie In 2004's The Notebook
Spears ended up losing the role to Rachel McAdams
Even though her experience on Crossroads "wasn't easy," Spears continued to pursue an acting career for a little while longer. The same year Crossroads was released in 2002, Spears auditioned for the female lead role of Allie in the 2004 film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' romance novel The Notebook. After her memoir was released in October 2023, the video of Spears' audition for The Notebook opposite Ryan Gosling was released by casting director Matthew Berry and ended up going viral. Berry said he was "blown away" by her "phenomenal" performance, stating that Spears "brought her A-game that day."
Spears and Gosling starred in The Mickey Mouse Club together as kids in the '90s.
Spears revealed in her memoir that "The Notebook casting came down to [her] and Rachel McAdams," who was still relatively unknown then. According to Berry, it was a "tough decision," but in the end, McAdams got the part in The Notebook over Spears. Upon its release, The Notebook went on to launch McAdams and Gosling into mega-stardom and lead to successful acting careers for both of them.
The Notebook is available to stream on Hulu and Max.
Britney Spears Losing The Notebook Role Was The End Of Her Film Career
Spears is glad she didn't get the part in The Notebook
The Notebook was a close call, but Spears was ultimately "glad [she] didn't do it." As she explained in her memoir, if she had gotten the role in The Notebook, Spears would have probably had trouble separating herself from the character of Allie just like she did with Lucy, which would have interfered with her music at the time. "Instead of working on my album In the Zone," Spears wrote, "I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”
Spears was "relieved" that Crossroads turned out to be "pretty much the beginning and end of [her] acting career."
After losing The Notebook role, Spears decided to quit acting and focus solely on her music career instead. It ended up working out for the best since In The Zone was a major commercial success and gave her one of her biggest hits of all time with "Toxic." In retrospect, Spears was "relieved" that Crossroads turned out to be "pretty much the beginning and end of [her] acting career," and has no regrets about leaving the movie star life behind.
Source: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
