Britney Spears Says 'Method Acting' While Filming 'Crossroads' Messed with Her Mind: Had No 'Separation at All' (Exclusive)
The pop star writes she "didn't know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person" while shooting the movie
Richard Foreman/Paramount Pictures/THA.
Anson Mount, Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning in 2002's 'Crossroads'Britney Spears is opening up about her real experience while filming Crossroads.
In her upcoming memoir The Woman in Me, the pop megastar wrote in an excerpt shared with PEOPLE that "method acting" during the filming of the 2002 road trip dramedy was unexpectedly disorienting.
"The experience wasn’t easy for me. My problem wasn’t with anyone involved in the production but with what acting did to my mind," Spears, now 41, writes of her experience on Crossroads.
"I think I started Method acting — only I didn’t know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person. Some people do Method acting, but they’re usually aware of the fact that they’re doing it. But I didn’t have any separation at all."
She writes in the book: "I ended up walking differently, carrying myself differently, talking differently. I was someone else for months while I filmed Crossroads. Still to this day, I bet the girls I shot that movie with think, She’s a little…quirky. If they thought that, they were right."
Related: Britney Spears Reveals Why She Shaved Off Her Hair and Was 'Acting Out' in 2007 (Exclusive)
Once filming was over, Spears ultimately decided acting wasn’t for her.
"That was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved," she admits. "I imagine there are people in the acting field who have dealt with something like that, where they had trouble separating themselves from a character."
Spears writes, "I hope I never get close to that occupational hazard again. Living that way, being half yourself and half a fictional character, is messed up. After a while you don’t know what’s real anymore."
Britney Brands
Britney Spears on the cover of PEOPLETo coincide with the release of Spears' memoir, Crossroads is returning to the big screen for two nights only, Oct. 23 and 25.
The film, directed by Tamra Davis and written by Shonda Rhimes, follows childhood best friends Lucy (Spears), Mimi (Zoe Salda?a) and Kitt (Taryn Manning) as they road trip across the U.S. on a journey of self-discovery and friendship after drifting apart over the course of eight years.
The "Lucky" singer will release her much-anticipated memoir on Oct. 24, through Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
Spears' memoir comes nearly two years after Spears was released from her court-ordered conservatorship after 13 years. In November 2021, the conservatorship was terminated after Spears delivered an impassioned public testimony in court in June of that year.
According to a press release from Gallery Books, the singer’s memoir “illuminates the enduring power of music and love — and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms," and the book promises to reveal “for the first time her incredible journey (and) strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history."
For more of the exclusive excerpt and interview with Britney Spears, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
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