Britney Spears sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, opened up about returning to acting after nearly a decade hiatus in the upcoming “Sweet Magnolias” on Netflix.
“I had been in denial, not really admitting to myself how much I missed acting,” the 29-year-old actress shared with the Hollywood Reporter in a piece published Tuesday.(RELATED: Britney Spears’ Best All-Time Performance Moments [SLIDESHOW])
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“I was working on my music for a while, and then I focused on my family for a bit,” she added. “With acting, I was just waiting for a project that made sense.”(RELATED: Britney Spears Shows Off Some Wild Dance Moves At Home)
Spears continued, while noting how “this opportunity was amazing to me: to have people take a chance on me, to give me freedom with this role. To be honest, I was very, very nervous. But I was so excited to be working again, and that outweighed the fear completely.”
Jamie Lynn, who starred in Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101” in 2005 when she was just 13, later walked away from Hollywood in 2008 when she gave birth to her daughter Maddie, now 11 after a highly publicized teen pregnancy.
She said when she learned about the part of Noreen Fitzgibbons, a nurse who has an affair with Dr. Bill Townsend and get’s pregnant, becoming the focus of gossip in the series adapted from author Sherryl Woods’ romance novels she “fell in love with the part.”
“It’s that simple,” Spears said. “I didn’t want to do something just to do it. I didn’t want to come back and do something that I didn’t connect to, because I knew that would read on camera, and then that might blow my chances of ever getting another job.”
At one point, Jamie Lynn explained that having famous pop singer Britney Spears for a sister, has allowed her to successfully navigate the industry.
“Having Britney as an example was crucial for me,” Jamie Lynn shared. “Not only did my sister build me up, but she made me feel like I was the star when she was clearly the star. (Laughs) Britney was always really open and honest with me about the good and the bad that comes with this industry.”
“And that’s what gave me the confidence to say no sometimes,” she added. “If I hadn’t had someone like Britney to warn me, I probably wouldn’t have had that confidence to say, ‘No, I’ve seen this. I know where this goes.’ I was so lucky, because I had someone who’s walked the road, and she’s walked it so successfully.”
Later she hinted at a possible “Zoey 101” reboot and said “everything and anything is on the table, whether that’s a movie or a series.” The next step is to figure out the right place for it, as she noted, her viewers are no longer watching Nickelodeon and have grown up.