B.L. Anson, before I even saw Crossroads the first question that I was going to ask you was, what was it like to be the only male with these three gals constantly around you?
A.M. (Laughs)

B.L. Then seeing the movie made me howl, because you have a scene where you just go ballistic and can't take these girls anymore. Was that how you were really feeling?
A.M. No, not at all. I actually had to rip that performance off. I stole that from Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick when he was surrounded by those three women and he freaks out in the foyer at one point. But no, it wasn't just them, the director was a woman, the producer was a woman, the costume designer was a woman, hair, makeup, everybody. They were all women. I like that actually I grew up with a single mother and I have always gotten along famously with women. I think that it creates a nurturing environment and I think that women handle long-term stress a lot better than men. So I love having lots of women around in a work capacity.

B.L. What was it like developing the friendship and the comradery between the four of you?
A.M. There was no development. We clicked from the first day. We just hit it off. Those girls are crazy. We had so much fun, we really did.

B.L. Take me back to your first meeting with Britney Spears. Despite the fact of who she is and what she has accomplished, she's a pretty normal girl. But was it intimidating at all to meet her? What were you feeling?
A.M. Sure I was a little nervous, but I found her to be incredibly sweet and shy even. I asked her if she was nervous to be working on a movie and she said yes. I thought, wow she is really coming at this in the right way. She's only impressed me.

B.L. When you found out you were up for this role, I know that you were working on a movie set with Robert De Niro at the time. I understand that he actually read Britney's lines with you. Is that true, because I canÕt quite see the great De Niro reading that part!
A.M. ( laughing). I know it was too funny. HeÕs hilarious that guy. I was on the set and I had the script for Crossroads with me and he was like, "what's that?" I was like, "oh God. He's going to get upset because I was looking at a different script than the one that I was supposed to be working on." So I said, "it's this movie with Britney Spears and I am not even sure if Im going to do it." And he goes, "why not?" So I said, "I don't know." The he said, "let me see that script." So I showed him and said "these are Britney's lines and these are mine. You can give me a hand here if you want." So he read as Lucy to my Ben. (laughs). Fortunately it wasn't a kissing scene.

B.L. Well .. now that you brought it up, let's talk about the kissing scene.
A.M. Here it goes, here's the question.

B.L.Well, come on. Everyone wants to know!!!
A.M. OK.. I'm ready!!!

B.L. It's her first on screen kiss. You probably have her boyfriend Justin Timberlake behind your back watching
A.M. No. He wasn't there!

B.L. So, what was it like trying to make her comfortable on the set? I'm sure she was a little nervous about it.
A.M. I think that she was probably a little nervous but it manifested itself in a lot of giggling. You've got to understand that when you are getting to know somebody as a human being and then someone comes along and says you have to kiss now with a hundred people watching it's hilarious. So the first few takes we sort of leaned towards each other and we'd just bust up, because it's ridiculous. It's silly but we got through it.

B.L. You mentioned earlier that you really did like working with all these women, but what was it about the script that really caught your eye? What did you like about Ben?
A.M. I thought here's a movie that is obviously going to marketed towards a younger audience that are going to have brains in their head to think about some real issues. Besides the fact that all of these characters including Ben are at a crossroads in their lives and are trying to figure things out. I've been feeling like that since I was 14 and I'm starting to come to the realization maybe that all of life is a crossroad and that there really aren't any answers. There are just sort of beautiful questions.

B.L. As we mentioned, your next film is going to be with Robert DeNiro. Can you tell me a bit about it?
A.M. It's called City by the Sea, and Robert De Niro plays a New York City detective who takes a leave of absence to investigate a murder that his son is accused of committing. I play a young detective in the police force who starts supplying him with information that I'm not supposed to be giving him.

B.L. It must have been a fabulous experience working with him.
A.M. Oh, you can't imagine. It was fantastic. I learned a lot from that man.