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It’s a love story? Hardly — it’s a ghost story. Taylor Swift brought her “Patient Zero” music video to the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night for its official world premiere, following up the release of the single
at the beginning of the weekend with visuals that take the triangle in the song into more dramatic and even spookier realms than might have been anticipated. Dakota Johnson and Colin Ferrell amping up the tension, which ultimately has reverberations that go beyond just a bad breakup.
Fans had only seen a 13-second teaser for the video prior to its premiere on the CBS/MTV/Paramount+ telecast, and they now know which character the headstone was for in the cemetery Swift and Johnson visit.
The video is, of course, Swift’s latest directorial effort, and the occasion of her attendance at the VMAs was receiving the inaugural Artist-Director Honor. It was not her only trip to the podium; after the initial speech and video premiere, Swift came back later in the show to accept a video of the year award for “The Fate of Ophelia,” at which point she thanked Dolly Parton for her inspiration.
The singer’s initial remarks prior to sharing the video were brief, after an introduction by Johnson. “First of all, I want to say thank you to MTV for giving this platform to music videos so long ago,” Swift began. “I got to start making music videos and being a part of music videos 20 years ago, and since then, I’ve gotten to be a part of making 60 music videos — roughly 60. Eighteen of those, I wrote and directed, and I really love writing and directing music videos. I’ve gotta tell you, though, that the main reason why I love writing and directing music videos so much is because you, the fans, make it so much fun. It’s so rewarding because you actually care about what we’re making. So, you know, I wanna say thank you to everyone who ever worked on a music video that I got to be a part of. I learned something from every single person that ever worked alongside me on these projects. Mainly I want to say thank you to the fans…
“And rather than say anything else, I think rather than than keep talking, I would love to, if it’s OK with you, show you my latest music video, stsarring my friend Dakota Johnson and Colin Ferrell. Cinematography by Chivo.”
“Chivo” is a nickname for Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who often works with Steven Spielberg, and who was shooting a Swift video for the first time. She seems especially enamored of that collaboration; Lubezki’s name came up as the first and only onscreen credit at the end of the premiere.
The video has Johnson and Farrell portraying a couple whose relationship appears on the rocks, with Swift acting as a counselor to the woman, singing lyrics about how she is the man’s ex and can tell her exactly how things will go. Things are just a little less sinister in the song’s lyrics than in the way things play out on screen. Johnson is seen getting angry with Johnson after a banquet at which he speaks, as the music drops out for a driving scene in which he seems to be gaslighting her with accusations about her drinking, after she has become upset at the sight of him flirting with female guests.
The video cuts to flashback of similar experiences in which Swift, his then-companion, reacted more angrily to his infractions. There’s a headline that reads “Heiress dies of mystery illness — husband inherits billions” (with the additional explanation, “Spouse inherits estate amid unanswered questions”). Then we see the two women standing at a gravestone with a photo that suggests it was Swift’s character who was born in 1986 and died in 2022. Johnson places black roses on the headstone of Swift’s dead heiress character, with it left unclear whether she’s taken any lessons from Swift’s purely spectral counsel or not.
Swift was more expansive in her remarks about the new video in a message she posted on social media immediately after the premiere. “The ‘Patient Zero’ video is finally out in the world!” she wrote. “Getting to work with Emmanuel Lubezki was something out of a dream sequence, and I learned so much from getting to watch his genius in action. I want to thank Dakota and Colin for trusting me with their time, taste, and talent (giggling with your friend because you’re twinning for an entire shoot was a new and truly delightful experience). And Colin’s turn as a villain is even more impressive when you get to be around him. He’s an absolute light and as kind as they come. Cara, thank you for agreeing to play the lusty other woman. That’s what friends are for? With the ‘Patient Zero’ video, I got to explore the cinematic and literary genres I love so much. I wanted to incorporate elements of gothic ghost stories, true crime, psychological thrillers all in a setting I hadn’t really shot in much. The house was a metaphor for the coldness of a relationship that’s faded and atrophied. Thank you to Ethan Tobman for your insightful production design, and bringing that feeling to life. My editor Chancler Haynes has outdone himself. And lastly, thank you to the VMAs for giving us a World Premiere at the place where celebrating music videos became a thing. And so much love for you guys, always.”
Following the VMAs premiere, an alert told fans they could view “Patient Zero” on Spotify Premium, Apple Music or Amazon Music. Notably, Swift has withheld her recent videos from YouTube’s free tier for a couple of days upon release before putting them up there as well, presumably because views on non-paid services do not count toward the consumption totals that fuel the Billboard charts. It will be available on YouTube as of Tuesday, the alert noted.
In advance of the music video’s release, Swift took to her Instagram Stories on Sunday to post a short clip of herself talking to the camera, with a dateline revealing for the first time that the “Patient Zero” video was shot all the way back in March. (Needless to say, no NDA gets respected like a Taylor Swift NDA.) It gives confirmation that she hatched the idea for a VMAs premiere half a year ago, and held onto it as a secret till this date.
Says Swift in the IG clip: “Walking through here and seeing the way that Chivo has lit this and the way the sets are and how brilliantly Ethan has done this set design, I’m kind of rethinking the release of the video. Like, I need to figure a way to get this on TV or something. I’m sort of like: ‘Google, when are the VMAs?'” A caption under the video states the obvious: “Turns out the VMAs are Sept. 27, aka today.”
In that quote, “Chivo” is a nickname for Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and “Ethan” refers to Ethan Tobman, her longtime production designer.
Beyond her nominations at the VMAs for “The Life of a Showgirl” and “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift was given a guaranteed trip to the podium for whatever speech or unveiling she might have in mind when CBS announced that she would be receiving the inaugural Artist Director Honor. The award is given to an artist who is accomplished behind the camera as well as in front of it. Producers have described it as analogous in stature to the VMAs’ traditional Video Vanguard award, while noting that it is an unknown whether any other artists will receive this new honor in the future.
When she came back to accept her award for video of the year for “Ophelia,” she said, “Thank you so much for giving this award to this video… I just I loved making this video because I wanted it to seem like one continuous shot, so I learned a lot about hiding cuts in places. And I want to thank everybody who helped me on this video shoot because, just the choreography… I love so much Mandy Moore as my choreographer… production designed by Ethan Tobin, my editor Chancellor Haynes, and my cinematographer on this video I’ve gotten to work with before, he’s one of the people who gave me the confidence to actually direct videos on my own. His name is Rodrigo Prieto.
“And lastly, but most importantly, I want to thank and dedicate this award to one person, without whom this wouldn’t be happening, and that person is the ultimate showgirl, Dolly Parton. Every single song that she wrote, her storytelling was so vivid and so rich… Listening to her songs, it’s like watching the best music video you have ever seen in your life every single time you hear what she has written. And man, she handled this thing with such grace and joy and love and gratitude for the fact that she got to do this, and everything that happened in her life or her career, she channeled back into love and gratitude and appreciation for her fans. I’m lucky I got to be one of them and I will always be one of them. I love you all so very much and I think that we were all very lucky to share this planet with Dolly Parton for a time, and thank you for this amazing moment.”
The VMAs now have CBS as their primary home, allowing Swift a much higher profile for her music video than it would have gotten prior to last year, when MTV was still seen as the show’s go-to network (although the ceremony is still simulcast on the former music network).
The song “Patient Zero” came out Friday morning, as a single and also as part of a quartet of previously unreleased tracks newly tagged on to her 2025 “The Life of a Showgirl” album for an expanded edition titled “The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore.” The other three new songs are “Cleveland!” (about Travis Kelce and his hometown), “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.”
In her announcement for the expanded edition of the album, Swift wrote that about a year ago she “took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max (Martin) and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album. Really we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs.”
Of the single itself, she said in an audio clip released to radio stations, “I was hanging out with a bunch of friends, and one of my friends told us that she had been reached out to by the new girlfriend of an ex of hers, asking for guidance on if she had had the same experiences with this guy that this new girlfriend was having. And everyone in our group just immediately started saying like, ‘Oh, I’ve been through that too’, and telling the stories of when this kind of reach out had happened for them. And I thought to myself, if this has happened to all of us, it’s such an interesting kind of angle on humanity and on relationships, and I wonder if I could write something from the perspective of getting this phone call, and really only from the perspective and the side of the phone call of the ex who’s been through it before.”
The theme of the song is summed up in the concluding lines: “So if you wanna kick it, then I’m with it, I’ve been there / Felt the reeling, done the healing, said the curses and the prayers / When the fever turns a dreamer into a pathetic ghost / If he’s killing you, I see you, I was patient zero.”
