Looks Like She Did
It Again
Three No. 1 albums, the world's
press at her feet and now a movie. No wonder Britney Spears is being hailed
as the Madonna for the new generation.
Those who believe
in the natural order of things can understand why New Orleans is crawling
with camera crews and entertainment reporters this week. They are hear
to witness the rebirth of Britney Spears, to record her emergence as Britney,
Movie Star. Or, as she might say, Oops, I Did It Again.
After her success in
television (The New Mickey Mouse Club) and pop music (40 million albums
sold and counting), it seems a natural progression for her to conquer the
big screeen. Spears, one of the brightest stars on the celebrity map, wants
to make movies, and she wants to be taken seriously. As light and frothy
as some of her pop songs are, you sense a resolve in this new career quest.
Spears wants to make it in movies, and at the ripe old age of 20.
And she is not afraid
to court controversy. While most pop stars with young followings who make
the transition to films choose safe, non-controversial stories, her new
movie Crossroads deals with first sexual experiences (including that of
her own character, Lucy) and teen pregnancy (costar Taryn Manning plays
a pregnant teenager, her plight the result of a drunken tryst).
While the film isn't
exactly Panic in Needle Park, it does take on subjects which may alienate
some of her pre-pubescent fans. It doesn't appear to bother her.
"I think [these issues]
are something that's out there, and it's something that's important to
deal with," says Britney, who looks tiny in her trademark midriff-revealing
pants and top as she kneels on the couch of the Ritz-Carlton hotel suite
in New Orleans.
"I wanted to do a teen
movie that had real teen issues in it."
Indeed, the issue of
her virginity is something she has been hounded about herself over the
past few years.
But after years of
saying she wanted to stay celibate until she was married, Britney recently
told Hollywood.com that she regretted ever talking openly about her virginity.
"I wish I'd never said anything about being a virgin now," said Britney,
whose boyfriend is 'N Sync's Justin Timberlake.
The world is buzzing
for news of Britney. New Orleans itself hasn't seen a week like this since
its bustling Golden Age 150 years ago: the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and Britney
all within days of each other.
The only female artist
to debut in the No. 1 spot for all her three albums (Baby One More Time,
Oops! I Did It Again and Britney) returned to her home state to help promote
the movie, which opens everywhere (and we mean everywhere) in North America
on Feb. 15.
Her schedule is exhausting,
although not surprising for the woman put at the top of Hollywood Reporter's
Star Power 2002 Survey of the musican/actors with the most bankable star
power.
Last Tuesday, Britney
taped an MTV Mardi Gras special at Jackson Square, in the city's French
Quarter district. That night she attended the world premiere of Crossroads
-- which features her new song I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman -- at a
suburban theatre. Then it was three days of interviews for media members
flown in from all over North America and Europe.
While you'd expect
Britney fans to be breathless over all this activity, some of the media
were also seen hyperventilating. I spied at least two TV reporters pressing
their ears to the closed door, trying to overhear something, at the suite
where she was giving interviews.
Not everyone, however,
was gaga. Britney brought her entire family to the premiere, although her
grandfather was reported as saying the film was "all right," but he preferred
"John Wayne," according to the local newspaper, Times-Picayune.
But she seems determined
-- as she has been since her career started way back at the age of 11 on
the Disney Channel's The All-New Mickey Mouse Club -- about her move into
movies. "I'd like to just get better at the movies, to really challenge
myself and stuff," says Britney, who cites Goldie Hawn as one of her favourite
actresses.
Asked if she has a
five-year plan, she says she wants to make more movies and make at least
one more recording in that time.
Like most of us, the
20-year-old used to fantasize as a kid about being a movie star, play-acting
roles with her friends.
"I did that all the
time. I'd see myself in love stories," says Britney, naming Willy Wonka
and the Chocolate Factory and Grease as favourite flicks as a kid, and
Pretty Woman and Notting Hill as favourites later on.
She's received her
share of scripts in the past year, but nothing really clicked with her
until she got her hands on Crossroads, a road movie in which three 18-year-old
high school grads (Zoe Saldana and Manning play Britney' girlfriends) travel
by car across the U.S. with a handsome young musician, played by Anson
Mount. It was written by Shondra Rhimes, who wrote the Emmy-winning TV
movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
"I'd been getting a
lot of scripts, and I just wanted to do something that was totally different,"
says Britney, who is a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday.
But she does admit
to being apprehensive when the shooting began.
"I was really nervous.
I didn't know what I was doing. But Taryn and Zoe and Anson and [director]
Tamra [Davis] really helped me, Once I got on set and got in the clothes
and everything, I really started to experience who the character was."
She says the toughest
part of the shoot was the crying scenes.
"I really had to envision
what Lucy was going through and feel sorry for her," says Britney.
She owes a lot to the
other actors, she adds, who helped her on set.
"On certain scenes
that I felt uncomfortable with, they would say, 'Do it this way,' or 'Try
this.' That happened on the early scenes."
When it's suggested
that Britney' fame might negate her duplicating Lucy's adventure, just
piling into a car and taking off with friends, she vehemently denies it.
"I could take off if
I wanted to. And if people were following me around, that might make it
more fun, because I could be secretive about everything."
So pop star, movie
star ... and now college student? The rumours abound that university might
be on the cards for Britney, but college boys shouldn't pant quite yet.
"Three or four classes, nothing major," she says, making it clear that
she hasn't actually applied for university entrance anywhere.
If she did, of course,
that would mean less time with her touring schedule. And thoughts of a
slowdown are killed outright. "I'm not really ready for that," she declares.
Slowdown, indeed. It
seems as if a dirty word has been spoken.
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