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Crossroads

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More than two decades after Crossroads was released, the film’s producer recalled putting her foot down when it came to Britney Spears‘ “crazy” work schedule. According to Ann Carli, the pop star’s team wanted her to work “18-hour” days — until the producer herself stepped in.

To celebrate the debut of Spears’ new memoir, The Woman in Me, her 2002 coming-of-age flick has been re-released in theaters. While speaking in a Q&A with Crossroads fans, Carli and director Tamra Davis opened up about working with the singer, who was only 21 at the time of filming.

“She was super busy. One of the things that I thought was really important was that she had time to rehearse with the other actors,” Carli said, per Variety. “The day before she was shooting, they had a giant Pepsi commercial. It was crazy.”

At one point during production, Spears’ team allegedly “wanted her to be recording at night after she did a full day’s work on the set.” However, Carli quickly shut it down.

“I just said, ‘Absolutely not. I’ll shut the movie down right now, because that’s not fair to her,'” she remembered.

The producer even heard directly from Spears at a later time. She said, “They had her come to me and say, ‘It’s OK. I don’t mind [having] to work an 18-hour day.’ And I said, ‘Guess what? You don’t have to.'”

In her highly anticipated memoir, Spears reflects on her difficult time shooting Crossroads — in which she, Taryn Manning and Zoe Saldaña star as three friends who take a cross-country trip.

“I think I started Method acting — only I didn’t know how to break out of my character,” she writes in an excerpt, per People. “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 continues, “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.”

It’s no wonder Spears’ acting career started and ended with Crossroads.

The Woman in Me officially dropped today.