Britney Spears’ ‘Crossroads’ Turns 20: Director Tamra Davis Shares Memories on Working With Pop Star (EXCLUSIVE)
16.02.2022 - 01:07
/ variety.com
Elizabeth Wagmeister Senior CorrespondentTwenty years ago, “Crossroads” hit theaters. The first feature film to star Britney Spears, the teenage road trip movie was panned by critics, but loved by audiences.
Exceeding box office expectations, making more than $61 million on a $12 million budget, “Crossroads” went on to become somewhat of a cult favorite, particularly among Spears’ worldwide fans.“Crossroads,” which also starred Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning, Dan Akroyd, Beverly Johnson and Kim Cattrall, was written by Shonda Rhimes, who would go on to create “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal,” becoming one of the most powerful creators in television history. Rare for its time, the low-budget film was also directed by a woman, Tamra Davis, resulting in a mostly-female production that supported its young, central superstar.
At the time Spears filmed “Crossroads” — which came out on Feb. 15, 2002 — she was in the midst of recording her third album and had become the best-selling teenage artist of all time, let alone one of the biggest stars on the planet, fresh off of “Oops…I Did It Again” and “Baby One More Time.”“Crossroads” was a starring vehicle for Spears, who played the character Lucy, and featured her song, “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet a Woman.” The movie, which centered around female friendship and explored topics such as teen pregnancy, rape and childhood abandonment, coincided with a time when the pop star would enter a more mature phase of her music career.
Within a year of the film’s release, the pop star became a constant paparazzi magnet who was targeted by a misogynistic media machine amid her breakup with Justin Timberlake. In the years that followed, Spears would be placed under a court-ordered conservatorship, which
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