With it’s big production and slashing chorus, Taylor Swift’s single “I Knew You Were Trouble”–from her 2012 album Red–takes the singer in a very different direction from almost anything she’s done before.
The video for the song, too, is new ground for Taylor.
In a series of behind-the-scenes clips from the video shoot that were released this week, Taylor talks about what some of her thoughts were regarding the look and feel of the video. “The song sounds different from anything I’ve done before, so I thought, why not make this video unlike anything we’ve done before?”
The male love interest (played by Reeve Carney) is, as Taylor describes him, “a force.” And Taylor’s character “will do anything to fit into his world.”
As for her different look, she says, “I knew that in this video I wanted to look like someone else. I wanted to play a character.”
“I guess the pink hair is my fault,” Reeve says to Taylor at one point during the shoot, about their characters. “But it does look good on you.”
The final clip focuses on the festival scene in the video. It was shot in the California desert, a setting that Taylor says is “gorgeous. The perfect place to shoot a tragic love story.” As Reeve explains, they’re shooting in Acton, Calif., a tiny town between Lancaster and Los Angeles.
Reeve says his ‘bad boy’ character was a stretch for him. But he’s having fun with it. He also has nice things to say about Taylor. “She’s a sweetheart. And for all the success she’s had, she handles herself very well.”
The “I Knew You Were Trouble” video was directed by Anthony Mandler, who’s also done videos for Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, and Lana Del Rey, among others. As Taylor says, “I reached out to Anthony because I’d loved his videos he’d done in the past. He knows how to push limits.”
Listen: The Top 10 Taylor Swift “I Knew You Were Trouble” Covers
“We took a lot of chances,” Mandler says, “and we pushed the Taylor Swift world into a place maybe nobody’s seen her. And I think she pushed herself.”
Taylor Swift’s album Red is available on iTunes and Amazon.
Taylor is also gearing up for a major North American tour, with special guest Ed Sheeran.
- Kurt Wolff, Radio.com
