When Empire star Serayah got the call that Taylor Swift had enlisted her to join the star-studded “Bad Blood” video, the singer/actress was knocked over by the offer.
“Well, initially, her management contacted my management, they proposed the idea to me,” she tells Billboard. “And I completely loved it and so we went from there. It seemed like [from] the ideas for it and the treatment for the video, I was just like ‘Oh, my gosh! This is so dope. I can’t wait’.”
Serayah reveals that Swift was familiar with her thanks to her role of Tiana on the hit Fox drama. “Yeah, actually– her and the director of the video [Joseph Kahn had] seen me on Empire and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh, let’s have her on the video!'”
Next up was hitting the set, where Serayah was not only greeted by Swift but also a who’s who of celebrities, ranging from supermodels (Gigi Hadad, Karlie Kloss,Cindy Crawford) to multi-hyphenates (Selena Gomez, Zendaya) to chart-toppers (Hayley Williams) and actresses (Hailee Stenfeld, Ellen Pompeo, Mariska Hargitay).
Despite all that star power on set, Serayah says there was nothing approaching diva behavior. In fact, the shoot even included burger hangout sessions. “Everyone was really chill and just having fun, mainly,” she said.
The video also meant that the performers got the chance to take on some rather fierce alter egos, including Serayah as Dilemma. “It’s just a character. I think we’re all just playing characters, our alter-girl that we would love to be… just [an] amazing strong type of woman that can do kicks and stunts and things like that,” she says. “I think it was just a character we were all fascinated with.”
Head over to Billboard to read more.
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