For a moment, Chuck might have been forgiven for believing that the mother and two daughters had wandered in by mistake from the Disney-MGM theme park in the Lake Buena Vista division of Orlando: ‘I look at this kid—the sweetest, cuddliest, huggable little thing you could imagine—and I think to myself, “She’s tiny—what is this cutesy doing here?” Nothing about her gave the impression that she was ready for any of this,’ he said.
‘She stood before me looking more like someone who should be riding a bike back and forth to gym class, not showing up for Mickey Mouse Club. She seemed out of place. Everything she radiated was that of an innocent babe in the woods.’
On that first day, parents and new recruits were allowed to wander freely around the lot in an exploration of their new world when a smiling Britney wandered into the classroom where Chuck was on hand to meet and greet. As she walked in happily, he first noticed her tiny frame, but then something else struck him: the way she found a diversion in her sister, Jamie-Lynn, in the stroller: ‘She was so solicitous of her baby sister. She fussed her, attended to her and bent down, grabbing her little finger. It was strange, almost as if she was emulating her mum, mimicking what she would do.’
This young starlet was not, as was the norm, bursting into his classroom with passion and child-like vigour. What Chuck observed was more the passive curiosity of a shy visitor. In his mind, he tried to match the reality of what stood before him with the sure knowledge that all seven new ‘mice’ had come through a rigorous and exacting audition process. As he explains: ‘I thought, “How did this little sweet thing survive that process?” The way she looked, filled with wonder, made it appear as if someone had just plucked her from Louisiana and placed her down at Disney and she’s going, “Wow!”’
He knew that Britney must be enormously capable to get beyond the likes of Matt Casella, but physically, ‘she was an eleven-year-old who looked eight’ and her tiny frame and evident fragility made him privately question whether she was sufficiently equipped for the industry as a whole: ‘Though she had a basic talent, I did not know if she had the sophistication necessary that made many child-stars stand out.’
It says a lot about Britney’s raw innocence that Chuck so easily detected her vulnerabilities on first impression, without even understanding that here was a girl whose unconscious definition of performing was rooted in attention that brought approval, that in turn equalled love. And there was Lynne, still happy and supportive, so everything remained normal, stable and okay in Britney’s mind.
It’s highly unlikely any potential pitfalls crossed either mum or daughter’s thoughts in the manner that they crossed Chuck’s. Indeed, he knew they had entered an image-conscious arena and such awareness would only be magnified as Britney neared the threshold of puberty a time when facial and bodily features are liable to dramatically change. Whether parents realised it or not, Disney’s prerequisite for wholesomeness meant that the camera needed to keep liking the face and that the physical structure projected ‘the right image’ to a young audience. For instance, a flat-chested twelve-year-old wouldn’t be retained if she suddenly turned inappropriately voluptuous. Britney’s look encapsulated the sweet and innocent image Disney was all about, but she hadn’t yet entered puberty.
‘Talent alone didn’t carry them through,’ explained Chuck. ‘I had been at MMC four years when Britney arrived and had seen four kids get cut out because they did not look right; their appearance changed as they developed. I saw Britney’s bright eyes and trusting smile, and thought she’d never cope with such rejection.’
One wonders how this truth sat comfortably with Lynne’s stated vehemence against the harsh vanities of the beauty pageant system to which she was so fiercely opposed. Had this Disney truth emerged, would she then have withdrawn Britney from this Mickey Mouse Club dream? But Lynne would not be aware of such expectations.
Indeed, based on the first-hand account from the experienced tutor, she appeared as naive and wondrous as her daughter: ‘Lynne was as awed and overwhelmed as Britney. I looked at the three of them and I could not understand how they got here. I thought, “This business is going to be too much for people like this.” It was impossible not to like them because they are wonderful, kind-hearted folk, but it was also hard not to worry for them. Not because of The MMC—because it did things the right way and really took care of its kids—but because of the industry they were choosing. Britney had a talent; she was capable and conscientious, but I never became convinced that she was ever equipped or prepared for the journey ahead. I thought the industry would destroy her,’ not make her,’ he admitted.
But Britney had proved she was more than capable, earning her stripes three months earlier at the ‘audition camp’ where she’d first met fellow novices Justin Timberlake, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling, who would grow up to become a Hollywood actor known for his roles in Notebook, Fracture and Lars and the Real Girl. Only Jessica Simpson would be rejected, falling short with a seven-and-a-half out of ten mark for her vocals. Executives believed she ‘wasn’t ready’. But Britney impressed across the board, earning an eight-and-a-half for both acting and dancing, and a clear eight for vocals.
It was an excellent score, eclipsed only by the vocal tally of Christina Aguilera, whose extraordinarily unique sound earned her a near-perfect nine-and-a-half and an eight in both acting and dancing. Justin Timberlake wasn’t so hot when it came to his acting score (seven-and-a-half) and his dancing was marked half a point lower than Britney; he, too, scored eight for vocals. But the all-round talent of the new crop was obvious and each would help the other to become more polished performers.
Mickey Mouse Club choreographer Myles Thorough-good, who was responsible for whipping their dancing talents into shape, said: ‘Each one of them brought their own range of talents. Vocally, I think Britney learned a lot through others but she also taught others a lot about dance because she arrived fully trained and with lots of ability’
The new ‘mouseketeers’ developed a three-musketeer philosophy, sticking together and helping each other within their newfound Disney family. Britney was tightly bound throughout every step of the experience with Justin, Christina and Ryan. She couldn’t believe her luck. And luck’ was how she viewed it. She didn’t believe it was her right to be there, she simply felt blessed to be granted the opportunity. In pre-teen America, being selected as a ‘mouseketeer’ was the child’s equivalent of ‘getting to the Olympics’, according to Disney acting coach Gary Spatz.
Lynne’s wisdom was vindicated: belief and focus brings about achievement in alignment with God’s providence.
Chuck Yerger was not, at first, aware of how far Britney had travelled: ‘I didn’t know she had studied and rehearsed in New York and then done Star Search. But that’s because nothing carried over from those experiences to suggest she was a seasoned pro. There was no sense of “I’ve been to the wars”. Nor did I see a passion in the eyes or drive that so many child stars have, the one that says, “I’m doing this to get ahead in life”. My evaluation was that she saw the mouse club as an adventure.’
But Britney was there to take her chance and this particular opportunity combined two dizzying fantasies: to appear on daily television, but also to be part of the Mickey Mouse story from a theme park where the promise of a two-week vacation was normally sufficient to send kids wild with excitement. For the girl from a low-income town in Louisiana, just visiting Disney World had always been a farfetched dream. But she was now installed as another incarnation of the Mickey Mouse mantra which encourages all children to believe in their dreams, with a pip-squeak voice that, on all Disney parades, quickly adds: ‘Gosh! Everybody can imagine…’
When the curtain went up on Season 6 of The All New Mickey Mouse Club, Kentwood was glued to its newly installed cable channels, watching Britney make her onscreen debut in the fall of 1993. The show’s cheerleaderesque theme tune cued in the seven new recruits, along with the more established, older