Lady Gaga almost passed out in a ‘erotic-asphyxiation gimp suit’ on the set of her surreal ‘911’ video
Lady Gaga, more talented than Da Vinci and Da Vinky combined, in the music video for ‘911’. (Screen capture via YouTube)
Lady Gaga almost fainted in fetish-wear while filming the video for “911”, its director has revealed.
If you’re vying to escape this hurtling lump of space-rock by flying off to Chromatica, the hot pink and electric blue world envisioned by Lady Gaga, take a quick note of the dress code.
The director behind her recent “911” music video, Tarsem Singh, said Gaga was “hardcore” when it came to her wardrobe, zipping herself into a “gimp, erotic asphyxiation suit” that made her nearly faint in the blistering heat of Valencia, Spain.
“The leather suit she’s wearing is a gimp, erotic-asphyxiation suit, and the temperature was 118 degrees,” Singh told told Entertainment Weekly.
“We zipped her up, we did two takes [of] her giving the gestures of ‘911’ with her hands up, and after three takes, I think she was ready to pass out, so they took her headgear off.
“I said, ‘I need one more take!’ and she said, ‘Oh, please, do you have it?’. But I said no because her hand with the ‘one’ was against her black mask, and I couldn’t see her finger.
“And she said, ‘Do you really need that?’ and I had one look at her, she looked so red, so I said, ‘We have it.’
“So, I cut in her arm from a previous take.”
Lady Gaga in the music video for 911 (YouTube)
Singh, who also directed The Cell and Mirror Mirror, admitted that he had no clue who Gaga was when they first met in July.
“I told her when we met that I’ve never heard a song of hers, I haven’t seen [A Star Is Born],” he said.
“I told her that the song is what would make a big difference for me, because I’m not really the best person for a music video. But I loved the song. I knew what to do with it.”
‘911’ video director explains the meaning behind one of Lady Gaga’s most moving projects yet.
Lady Gaga’s “911”, named after the emergency services number in the US, is a tinny Euro-disco song that dives deep into the trauma the star has experienced in her lifetime.
Singh’s visual interpretation of the song sees Gaga awake into a surreal, sandy landscape that turns out to be a bizarre limbo her mind has concocted as it battles to keep her alive.
In illustrating the song’s lyrics, which detail Gaga’s mental health and the antipsychotic medication she takes, Singh said he rejigged a 28-year-old idea that was originally for the band Massive Attack.
“The original idea had more to do with blood loss,” he explained. “My friend said: ‘It’s basically The Wizard of Oz without the first act.’
“At the end, it’s like: ‘And you were there, and you were there!’ So, to build the first act, [we went] abstract.
“In the end, you realise the images were abstractions because she’s had an injury. They’re talking to her in the middle of blood loss.
“These images are of people who were trying to help her. When she’s in that phase, she’s seeing and imagining different things.”
