Stars of Taylor Swift’s You Need to Calm Down video had absolutely no idea it was a stonking queer anthem
Todrick Hall and Taylor Swift in ‘You Need to Calm Down’ (YouTube)
The queer stars of Taylor Swift music video “You Need To Calm Down” had no idea the song was going to be an LGBT+ anthem, according to Adam Rippon.
The Olympic figure skater appeared in the iconic music video last year alongside various queer icons, including Laverne Cox, RuPaul, Billy Porter, Ellen DeGeneres, Hayley Kiyoko, and Queer Eye‘s Fab Five.
But the music video’s stars knew nothing about the song’s powerful pro-LGBT+ message, Rippon said.
Speaking to comedian Cait Raft on her Hot and Rich series, Rippon revealed that he “never heard the song” before turning up on set to film the music video.
Adam Rippon noticed that the set of Taylor Swift music video ‘You Need To Calm Down’ was full of famous LGBT+ people.
Rippon said he was surprised when he was asked to star in the music video as he did not know Swift personally.
But it didn’t take him long to figure out what was going on. When he arrived on set, he quickly noticed that everyone there was a member of the LGBT+ community.
“They didn’t tell you anything about the song?” Cait asked Rippon.
“No, I knew nothing,” he said.
He also spoke about the strict security measures in place to make sure there were no leaks in advance of the star-studded music video’s release.
“So, there was a car that picked me up and then we made a stop [where] I had to drop my phone off,” he said.
“Then we drove to the set after that.”
The queer star-studded music video was filmed with heightened security to prevent any leaks.
When they were filming the music video, helicopters flew overhead to make sure there were no paparazzi in sight that could spoil the surprise.
Despite the strict security measures, Rippon enjoyed working on the music video, and praised Swift as “way nicer and way more down to Earth” than he expected.
Swift released “You Need To Calm Down”, the second single from Lover, in June of last year, which also happens to be Pride Month.
The song, which name-checked GLAAD, hit out at homophobes who turn up to Pride marches protesting against the existence of queer people.
While “You Need To Calm Down” was welcomed by many within the LGBT+ community, others hit out at Swift for “pandering” to queer people for profit.
