Britney Spears felt “relieved” when she lost the lead role in The Notebook to Rachel McAdams because she didn’t have an easy experience filming Crossroads.

The pop singer is glad she didn’t star alongside her fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum Ryan Gosling in the 2004 romance drama because she didn’t like what acting “did to (her) mind” on the set of her 2002 movie debut.

“(Crossroads) was pretty much the beginning and end of my acting career, and I was relieved,” she wrote in her memoir, The Woman in Me, reports People. “The Notebook casting came down to me and Rachel McAdams, and even though it would have been fun to reconnect with Ryan Gosling after our time on the Mickey Mouse Club, I’m glad I didn’t do it.”

The 41-year-old explained that she accidentally started method acting on the set of Crossroads and struggled to separate herself from her character Lucy.

“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 wrote.

“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.”

Reflecting on her short-lived acting career, Britney added, “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.”

Crossroads, written by Shonda Rhimes, co-starred Zoe Saldaña and Taryn Manning.

The Woman in Me will be released on 24 October.

© Cover Media