Sometimes you can go back.
Zoe Saldaña would be happy to return to 2002’s Crossroads. The actress starred in the teen drama with Britney Spears and Taryn Manning. Saldaña, now 46, and her two costars played former childhood best friends who take a road trip to California after their high school graduation.
Speaking to Variety on Oct. 22, Saldaña said she would go back to the world of Crossroads, which was written by Shonda Rhimes before she found success with Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal. “Why not?” the Avatar actress said when asked about a sequel.
She did have some stipulations, however. “But I feel like it would only work if Britney comes back and plays her character again,” the Guardians of the Galaxy actress explained. “And Taryn Manning does as well, and Anson Mount. And that we write realistic sort of scenarios for them. That would be beautiful.”
In the movie, Saldaña played Kit, the most popular girl at school who wants to visit her fiancé at UCLA. Spears, 42, played Lucy, who secretly dreams of becoming a singer. Manning, 45, played Mimi, who becomes pregnant after she is raped, and Mount, 51, played Ben, Lucy’s love interest. The movie also featured Spears’ hit song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” which became an anthem for a generation of young fans.
While speaking with Variety, Saldaña also reflected on the recent popularity of sequels, explaining, “We’ve been living the last 20 years in the world of sequels. Usually, you thought that sequels were only for action movies or superhero movies, and now, sequels can live in all kinds of genres.”
Saldaña told the outlet that she only had good memories of filming Crossroads. “It was so fun, but it was also, like, the first time that I was around a big pop star,” she explained of Spears. “And she was just so sought after, and yet, she was so down to earth and kind and approachable.” The Star Trek star also noted that the movie hadfemale-dominated cast, crew and producers, which gave her “a nice little kick.” She remembered, “I was like, ‘Oh, I wanna be like this all the time.’ ”
Crossroads was Spears’ acting debut, and in her 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, she shared that her “method acting” in the movie was disorienting.
“I think I started method acting — only I didn’t know how to break out of my character. I really became this other person,” she wrote. “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 continued, “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.”
Spears essentially ended her acting career there, writing in her memoir that she was “relieved.” She did make a handful of cameos on television shows, including Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother and Jane the Virgin.
