Britney Spears made her big screen debut in 2002’s Crossroads, but certain scenes almost didn’t make the cut.
“We definitely had to fight for some stuff,” the director of Crossroads, Tamra Davis, recalled to Entertainment Weekly on Friday, October 20, especially referring to a sex scene between Spears’ Lucy and Anson Mount’s Ben. “She wanted to [challenge] that image that she’s this forever virgin girl.”
Crossroads, written by Shonda Rhimes, followed three high-school graduates — played by Spears, 41, Zoe Saldaña and Taryn Manning — as they road-tripped from their Louisiana hometown to Los Angeles. Along the way, Spears’ Lucy connected with Ben, who was driving the girls for the duration of the journey. Their sex scene, which appears toward the end of the film, was done “tastefully” according to Davis. (The movie is rated PG-13.)
“A kid would not know what the heck is going on!” Davis, 61, quipped to EW. “That was a fight I’m happy we won.”
Prior to Crossroads, Spears had made a name as a pop star and for her relationship with ‘NSync singer Justin Timberlake. The pair dated between 1999 and 2002 before splitting over infidelity rumors. Upon their breakup, Timberlake, 42, infamously hinted that he knew that Spears was not a virgin despite her public image during an interview with Barbara Walters.
Anson Mount as Ben and Britney Spears as Lucy in ‘Crossroads.’ Paramount/Getty Images
Back in 2003, Spears told W magazine that she had only slept with “one person my whole life,” insinuating that it was Timberlake.
Us Weekly confirmed earlier this month that Spears reveals in her The Woman in Me memoir who she lost her virginity to — and it was not Timberlake. According to her book, she had sex for the first time with the childhood best friend of her brother, Bryan Spears. (Timberlake has not addressed her memoir claims, though a source told Us that he’s “trying to distance himself” from the tell-all.)
Britney was dating Timberlake when she filmed Crossroads.
“I would have to go knock on her hotel room door in the morning sometimes and be like, ‘OK, Britney, time to go,’ and Justin would be there,” Davis recalled to EW. “It was during the height of, ‘Is Britney a virgin?’ I wasn’t even going to ask! Even waking her up in the hotel room, I was like, whatever is going on in your private life, that’s private.”
Taryn Manning as Mimi, Anson Mount as Ben, Zoe Saldana as Kit, and Britney Spears as Lucy in ‘Crossroads.’ Paramount/Getty Images
Davis — who thought the Grammy winners were the “cutest couple” at the time — even added a brief ‘NSync reference in the film. Lucy and her besties notably belted out the band’s “Bye Bye Bye” when they drove Ben’s car away from a gas station as he took a nap in the backseat.
“The scene encapsulated what was going on with the music scene at that time,” Davis explained on Friday. “It was this mixture of what music [Ben] wanted to listen to, which was Nirvana and alt-grunge, versus what the girls wanted to listen to, which was ‘NSync and Backstreet Boys and boy bands. We loved that contrast of radio. I don’t know if it was specifically in the script. I think up to the last minute, we didn’t know if we would have the rights because it was a gigantic song.”
Crossroads returns to theaters nationwide on Monday, October 23, and Wednesday, October 25.