About halfway through Senior Year, former high school cheer captain Stephanie (Rebel Wilson) is getting desperate. After spending 20 years in a coma, she’s a 17-year-old aspiring prom queen stuck in the body of a 37-year-old adult. What’s more, her return to high school in an attempt to finish her education and regain her social status has been fraught with culture landmines — the rules she lived by as a popular girl in 2002 no longer apply. Thankfully, there’s at least one early-aughts staple that never goes out of style: Britney Spears. 

The singer’s oeuvre inspires one of the highlights of the movie. Namely, when Stephanie schools her new Gen-Z crew on the power of Britney. As they gyrate to the opening bars of 1999 hit “(You Drive Me) Crazy,” the suburban basement setting dissolves, and they find themselves re-creating the now iconic video in glorious detail... milkshakes and all.  

Originally, the moment was just a throwaway line in the script written by Brandon Scott Jones, Andrew Knauer and Arthur Pielli. “It literally just said, ‘And then we flashback, and we’re in Britney’s ‘Crazy’ video,’ ” Senior Year director Alex Hardcastle tells Tudum. 

Senior Year (You Drive Me) Crazy Music VideoBring out your inner Britney.

Wilson, a longtime Britney fan, was the one who came up with the idea of paying tribute with a faithful re-creation by the cast. Hardcastle was all in. “I wanted to make sure that the movie was celebrating Britney,” he says. In fact, the singer gave her blessing to the entire endeavor. “She was so into us doing this. She gave us permission to re-create the video and to use her music.”

But where to begin? 

Working with production designer David Sandefur, Hardcastle managed to rebuild “pretty much an identical set” right down to the microphone Wilson holds as she croons. The commitment to authenticity was so great that Hardcastle and his director of photography even researched what lenses and camera angles were used in the original video. “When I think of that video, I instantly think of Britney’s green top and that red neon ‘Crazy’ sign,” he says. 

Costume designer Salvador Pérez Jr. created a custom version of the sequined green top that Spears wears in the original video for Wilson. Then he altered pink waitress dresses to fit the look. “We had a week to get them together,” he tells Tudum. “We even made the little waist aprons. We found bigger ones, but I was like, ‘No, it has to be tiny, like Britney’s.’ ”

Boris Martin/Netflix

Still, it’s Wilson’s total commitment to the bit that really makes the sequence, ahem, sing. You can practically feel the years of dedicated fandom radiating from every hip thrust and vocal tic. “Rebel really channels Britney brilliantly,” Hardcastle says. “She’s just got all those ‘oh, ohs,’ and all the little turns.”

“I’m a huge Britney fan,” Wilson tells Netflix. “I’ve watched all her clips, I listened to her music, [and] we did ‘Toxic’ in Pitch Perfect. So even though I’ve never met her personally, I feel like I know her essence.”

For those who haven’t been practicing Britney Spears dance moves in their basements for decades, getting the sequence right was a thrilling challenge. The cast threw themselves into learning the choreography, which, Hardcastle points out, is deceptively difficult to master. Because the scene was shot on the penultimate day of filming, choreographer Aakomon Jones had several weeks to work with cast members Avantika, Joshua Colley, Jeremy Ray Taylor, and Wilson. “The minute Rebel arrived in Atlanta, they were rehearsing it,” Hardcastle says. “I feel like all the way through the shoot, everyone was looking forward to doing it. They were way more excited about doing the Britney video than anything else.”

All that practice paid off. According to Hardcastle, it only took three or four takes to nail the scene, largely because everyone was so well prepared. Still, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for some creative flourishes. “There’s a really fun bit where the camera is on Rebel and Avantika and Josh at the front on their chairs. Then Rebel kind of falls down underneath the lens and then gets back up,” Hardcastle says. “That’s actually not in the original video. Rebel just did it on the day.” A brilliant bit of improv, right? Wrong. “I was never supposed to fall over, but I just went with it. It was a total mistake,” Wilson says. 

Like so many of Senior Year’s musical cues, “(You Drive Me) Crazy” has the nostalgic pull of instant recognition. But it’s far from the most famous entry in Spears’ catalog. So why this particular song? “ ‘...Baby One More Time’ would be the most obvious choice,” Hardcastle says. “ ‘[(You Drive Me) Crazy]’ is not the most iconic song, but people really remember that video. Honestly, I secretly hope that it ends up charting again.”