Though Mandy Moore's stint as a pop star was short-lived, she still has plenty of both bad and good memories from that special time period.
The mom-of-two reflected on the early days of her career in a new interview, admitting that even though she was becoming famous, she was just a regular girl "besotted" with boybands.
One of her most embarrassing memories from back then occurred when she was on tour with *NSYNC.
"They were comparing height and foot size, and [Justin Timberlake] looked at my feet and said, 'Wow, you have big feet for a girl.' I was like 5’10” and had size 10 feet. At that point, I was just this long, skinny thing with these long boat feet," the This Is Us alum, 39, spilled. "It didn't scar me, but I was like, ‘Oh, that was not the thing that you wanted this really handsome, famous guy to notice about you.’"
"Years later, he found me and apologized for it, which I thought was wholly unnecessary, but entirely gracious and sweet of him," she continued.
"He's like, 'I know how that could traumatize you.' I was like, 'Justin, no, no, no, I'm fine,'" Moore said. "It was very, very kind of him. That was a mortifying moment. But you know, that kind of stuff, it's good for you."
While touring with A-listers would make anyone sweat, the star admitted she has more anxiety nowadays than back then.
“I didn't know enough to be as nervous as I probably should have been, like you're stepping into an adult world, you're on the precipice of life changing forever as you know it and any sort of autonomy is going by the wayside,” the Emmy nominee shared. “I am really grateful looking back that nobody took me outside of my comfort zone. I was always just allowed to be myself.”
That being said, she didn't get the chance to write her own tunes.
"It's funny. I feel like that was a time when — and maybe the music industry is the same way now — this was very much chosen for me. This was the song, and they were going to make it work in some shape or form," she explained.
"I was the lucky one that got to do it, and it helped jumpstart everything," said the Hollywood beauty. "But yeah, in a different sliding doors moment, it could have been anybody that sang that song and probably made it what it was."
Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!
Bustle spoke to Moore.
