Britney Spears "had fake names" to hide from fans during 'Crossroads' filming.
The 40-year-old star played Lucy Wagner in the 2002 teen drama, and now director Tamra Davis has opened up on the experience of shooting with the singer during at that stage in her career.
She told Variety: "We had to hide a lot. People would drive by and honk, or a thousand people would just show up to see Britney. Driving around in a convertible with her might as well have been in a parade.
"She had fake names as well. We were moving around pretty quickly, so I don’t think anybody could find us for very long.
"We just had to keep moving fast and try to ask the fans to please not yell while we were trying to shoot. But you know, of course, her fans are mean the world to her we always wanted to make sure to show them love."
The 60-year-old filmmaker admitted she has "really tried to get in contact" with the 'Toxic' hitmaker over the past few years amid the #FreeBritney movement which led to the end of her 13-year conservatorship, but she wasn't able to speak to her.
She said: "I would sometimes get media requests to talk about her, and I always wanted to make sure she would be okay with me talking. So, I would reach out to see if it’s okay for me to talk to the press.
"It just breaks my heart because when I think back to the messages that I was getting back, they never let me get to her — I would get messages back from her people saying, 'Britney would rather you not speak to press' and 'Britney would like it if you didn’t say anything about her. She’s nervous that everybody’s talking about her. Please don’t talk, please. She hopes this all goes away.' "Now, I just realised, oh my god, this was her people just trying to keep everybody away. I feel there were voices that could have helped her."
Tamra is "so happy" the singer now "has her freedom", but she's "sad that she had to go through that".
She added: "What an human abuse we did to a person and especially a woman — it’s like a nightmare and a horror movie. I wish we could have been there to help her more to get her out of it quicker. And I hope this never happens to anybody else."
