Before making a name for themselves in Hollywood, Britney Spears and Natalie Portman, who were born almost exactly six months apart in 1981, were understudies for the same role in a play in 1992, per the New York Post. The play was an all-female, off-Broadway production called “Ruthless!,” which is about an eight-year-old girl who is prepared to do “anything,” including commit murder, to land the lead role in her school musical, according to Concord Theatricals.
Per the New York Post, the lead role ended up going to now-celebrated actor Laura Bell Bundy (also born in 1981). However, it was ultimately determined that the then-10-year-old needed an understudy. “We thought, ‘We’re never going to find another [girl] — we’re really screwed,'” bookwriter/ lyricist Joel Paley told the outlet. “And that’s when we found Britney Spears.”
Spears only lasted for about eight months, knowing that she didn’t want to do the same thing “night after night,” as she wrote in her autobiography, “Britney Spears’ Heart to Heart.” After her exit, Portman was brought on as Bundy’s understudy. This led to Portman and Bundy developing a friendship. “We had sleepovers and prank-called people,” Bundy told the New York Post.
That being said, it seems as though it is Spears and Portman’s bond that has stood the test of time.
