It would not be an understatement to say that Emma Roberts has been training to play Britney Spears for more than half her life. In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, 33-year-old Space Cadet star was asked about recent headlines in which Spears’ longtime assistant, Felicia Culotta, pitched Roberts as the perfect actress to portray the pop superstar in the biopic adaptation of Brit’s best-selling The Woman In Me memoir.
“I was like, I love her assistant. I mean, it’s my true dream to play Britney Spears,” said Roberts of Culotta’s TMZ interview, in which she suggested that Emma’s child star roles on Nickelodeon shows such as Unfabulous were a good parallel to Brit’s younger years on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. “It’s a rumor, but I hope maybe it’ll come true. I mean, I remember I locked myself in my room and listened to [2003’s] In the Zone and said, ‘I cannot leave this room until I memorize every word.’”
Spears’ tell-all debuted at the top of the New York Times best-seller list year year and following a bidding war Universal won the rights to adapt it into a film, with Wicked director Jon M. Chu attached to bring it to the big screen along with producer Marc Platt. At press time no casting or timeframe has been announced for the film, though Culotta had a few other casting suggestions, including Timothée Chalamet as Spears’ ex, Justin Timberlake, and Drew Barrymore playing the singer’s longtime assistant.
On X earlier this moth Spears revealed that she’s been working on a “secret project” with Platt. “Excited to share with my fans that I’ve been working on a secret project with #MarcPlatt. He’s always made my favorite movies … stay tuned,” she wrote.
“I mean, I sing Britney to my son in the bath all the time,” Roberts told Cosmo of her four-year-old son, Rhodes, with ex Garrett Hudland. “I’m always like, ‘God, he must think I’m so weird.’ That’s some millennial parenting.”