14 DAY TRIAL // For a little over a week before the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, which took place last night at the MGM Arena in Las Vegas, Taylor Swift had been teasing fans with character posters for her upcoming video for the single “Bad Blood.”
Rumor has it that the song was written after she had a major fallout with her former BFF Katy Perry, who tried to hire some dancers from under her smack in the middle of a tour. Given the “Sin City” feel of the posters, anticipation for the video was high.
It premiered ahead of the gala, which aired on ABC.
Taylor Swift & Co. kick butt
You can see the video in full below, but let us say this: whatever you expected from the video, it’s twice that thing.
The teaser posters had hinted that the vid would have this “Sin City” / “Sucker Punch” feel, which meant all the celebrity friends Taylor had talked into appearing in it would star as some kind of warriors.
As it turns out, there are two groups of those.
What Taylor didn’t reveal in the teasers is that good pal Selena Gomez appears as Arsyn, her character Catastrophe’s Arch nemesis. To further fuel rumors of a Katy Perry rift, Arsyn has short dark hair, and could bear a resemblance to Katy if you really want to see one.
Moreover, TV actresses Ellen Pompeo and Mariska Hargitay also appear as Luna and Justice, two warriors who help Catastrophe in getting even with Arsyn, after she double-crosses her after a heist, leaving her for dead.
At the end of the video, the two former friends turned bitter enemies face each other against a backdrop of explosions that would make Michael Bay turn slightly green with jealousy.
A star-studded cast
The real pop culture quiz within Taylor’s “Bad Blood” video is trying to put a name to all the faces appearing on screen. No character introduced in the video, no matter how briefly, is played by a non-famous person, which goes to show just how many celebrity friends Taylor has in real life.
By the way, supermodel Cindy Crawford also makes a cameo, as also does Jessica Alba.
In addition to these women, you might also recognize Cara Delevingne, Martha Hunt, Serayah, Ellie Goulding, Hailee Steinfeld, Lena Dunham, Zendaya Coleman, Gigi Hadid, Lily Aldridge, Hayley Williams, and Kendrick Lamar, who remixed the track.
Here it is.
