'Crossroads' Stars, Then and Now

Years before she introduced viewers to Meredith Grey or Olivia Pope, Shonda Rhimes was penning the script to a Britney Spears-starring dramedy called Crossroads. Released in 2002, the flick features some huge stars in the earliest steps of their careers. See the cast then and now, ahead.

Fresh off of the release of 2001's Britney, and already with ...Baby One More Time and Oops!... I Did It Again to her name, Britney Spears led Crossroads as Lucy Wagner. In one of her first acting roles, the pop princess played a high-achieving high school student who heads west to search for her mother and finds herself along the way. While she famously focused on her music career after her turn as Lucy, Spears still acted from time to time, popping up in episodes of Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother, and Jane the Virgin.

Anson Mount was the mysterious Ben in Crossroads. Before playing the bad-boy driver, Mount made a 1999 appearance on Sex and the City as Greg, a guy Charlotte has a fling with in the Hamptons. In the years since, he picked up multi-episode turns on The Mountain, Line of Fire, and Conviction, and hit the big screen in City by the Sea (2002), In Her Shoes (2005), All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), Last Night (2010), Straw Dogs (2011), Safe (2012), and Non-Stop (2014). Mount is perhaps best known for the five years he's spent on Hell on Wheels as Cullen Bohannan.

Zoe Saldana nabbed the role of Crossroads' Kit early in her career. The future star played the popular high school student after making appearances in Center Stage (2000) and Get Over It (2001). The same year that Crossroads hit theaters, Saldana starred in Drumline, going on to earn credits for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The Terminal (2004), Guess Who (2005), Vantage Point (2008), Star Trek (2009), Avatar (2009), The Losers (2010), Colombiana (2011), and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). In recent years, she played Rosemary in the 2014 Rosemary's Baby mini-series, Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and Nina Simone in Nina (2016).

A few years after making her on-screen debut, Taryn Manning joined Crossroads as Mimi, a pregnant high school student with a traumatic past. After taking on the role, Manning starred opposite Eminem in 8 Mile (2002), and earned additional credits for Cold Mountain (2003), Hustle & Flow (2005), A Lot Like Love (2005), The Breed (2006), and The Devil's Tomb (2009). In the last few years, Manning had an extended arc on Sons of Anarchy, starred in The Speed of Thought, Low Down, and Experimenter, and played Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett on Orange Is the New Black.

Dan Aykroyd brought his Saturday Night Live-tested acting chops to Crossroads as Pete Wagner. He played the concerned single father to Spears' Lucy Wagner after earning acclaim for his writing credits — including such titles as Ghostbusters, The Blues Brothers, and Coneheads. The famed performer continued to act after Crossroads, earning on-screen credits for Bright Young Things (2003), 50 First Dates (2004), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), The Campaign (2012), and Tammy (2014), and episodes of According to Jim and The Defenders.

In the midst of her run as Sex and the City's Samantha Jones, Kim Cattrall joined Crossroads to play Caroline Wagner, the estranged mother to Spears' Lucy. She wrapped her small-screen turn as Samantha in 2004, reprising the role in 2008's Sex and the City and 2010's Sex and the City 2. Cattrall earned additional credits for Ice Princess (2005), The Ghost Writer (2010), Producing Parker, and Sensitive Skin.

In one of his first on-screen roles, a young Justin Long appeared in Crossroads as Henry, Lucy's geeky prom date. The actor came into the gig after earning credits for Galaxy Quest (1999), Happy Campers (2001), and Jeepers Creepers (2001), and went on to star in Ed, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Waiting... (2005), Accepted (2006), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), and He's Just Not That Into You (2009). In recent years, Long popped up in Going the Distance (2010), 10 Years (2011), For a Good Time, Call... (2012), and episodes of Mom and New Girl.

Famed actress and model Beverly Johnson appeared as Kit's mother in Crossroads. In the years since the movie arrived in theaters, Johnson has continued to serve as a model and spokesperson, and earned acting credits for a 2010 episode of Meet the Browns and 2012's Good Deeds.

Britney Spears' little sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, served as the younger version to the pop star's character of Lucy Wagner. It was the first on-screen acting credit for Jamie Lynn, who was 10 years old when the movie was released. She went on to pursue an acting career, spending two years on All That and three years on Zoey 101, and making cameos in episodes of Just Jordan and Miss Guided. Jamie Lynn also tried her hand at music, releasing a country EP in 2014.