Britney Spears Got a Breakup Text From Justin Timberlake Mid-Shoot on the 'Overprotected' MV

Britney Spears was shooting the Overprotected Dark Child Remix music video in 2002 when Justin Timberlake sent a text: "let's end the relationship." The couple had gone public in 1999 and split that same year.

Director Chris Applebum watched it unfold. On the second day of the shoot, Spears wouldn't leave her trailer. Staff knocked. Nothing. Applebum went to check on her himself and ran into her choreographer Brian Friedman on the way, who told him to "get out of this terrible situation." When he finally reached her, her eyes looked "dark like an iron curtain."

He offered her an out—she could stop shooting whenever she wanted. Then he saw the animal-shaped crackers in her hands. "Go back on stage and show him how well you're doing, how much he missed the best opportunity of his life," he said.

Spears straightened up. "That's right. Let's do that." Applebum says her performance that day outshined every other take from the entire shoot. Animal crackers as the turning point of a career moment.

Spears published a memoir titled The Woman in Me in 2023.