She’s not Madonna. She’s Britney. I worked with her a lot and I don’t know anything about her. She can dance and she can sing. She exudes personality in her performing. I loved working with her. The second time she did two weeks’ work in three days. She had the amazing ability to comprehend the moment without any coaching. Wade Robson did most of the hard work by choreographing the two pieces, much like Vince Paterson had done with Madonna. There is a strange connection here. I met Vince Paterson through Michael Jackson and I met Wade Robson through Michael. Michael, in effect, discovered these two choreographer/dancers and both Madonna and Britney benefited. Vincent, today, is directing opera in Europe, modernizing this ancient form.
The first commercial was Britney in a Pepsi factory and it was all choreography. She just did it. One of the ad guys panicked about her cleavage. I said, Isn’t that what you paid for? No one else commented.
The second spot was a ‘history’ of great Pepsi spots. The trouble was that the spots from the fifties and sixties weren’t very good. We all decided to remake the spots from our perspective. Britney’s character ranged from a Marilyn Monroe type to a sleek vamp out of Robert Palmer’s terrific SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE video. She nailed every character. I was working on a Disney project at the time and a key Disney executive saw a rough cut in my editing room. He was blown away and suggested that Disney buy her movie CROSSROADS before it was released and develop a musical for her. Nothing happened but it could’ve.