Madison Beer Breaks Down Her Most Iconic Music Videos

Allure Magazine

Madison Beer breaks down her most iconic music videos, from "Baby" to "Reckless." Watch as Madison gets into all the nitty gritty details of every music video shoot, explaining how it all came to life and why they chose certain outfits and makeup looks.   Director: Krystal Knight Director of Photography: AJ Young Editors: Lucy Nebeker Guest: Madison Beer Producer: Sydney Malone Production Managers: Andressa Pelachi, Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Kariesha Kidd Operations Manager: Anthony Wooten Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza Camera Operator: Osiris Larkin Audio: Will Miller Production Assistant: Brock Spitaels Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Erica Dillman Additional Editor: Jason Malizia Assistant Editor: Lauren Worona Graphics Supervisor: Ross Rackin

Transcript

00:00 Hey, I'm Madison Beer, and I'll be breaking down

00:02 some of my most iconic music video looks.

00:05 [upbeat music]

00:07 ♪ I can turn you on ♪

00:11 So this is "Baby."

00:12 This came out in 2020.

00:14 It was directed by my friend Drew Kirsch,

00:16 and it was off my album "Life Support."

00:17 I think this was my first ever two-day music video shoot,

00:21 and I was really excited

00:22 'cause I thought that was just very cool.

00:23 Most of this video was spent

00:25 in the hair and makeup chair, I would say.

00:27 Like, the shots didn't take particularly long,

00:29 but the changes did.

00:31 My hair was super light here.

00:33 I dyed my hair blonde for this video.

00:34 I thought that would be, like, exciting.

00:37 I don't remember the exact length,

00:38 but I'm pretty sure those were pushing, like,

00:40 30-inch clip-in extensions, and I don't know why.

00:43 I was just like, "I need hair that's down to my knees."

00:46 I think that the first thing that we did

00:47 was actually the pigtails, and I was so excited,

00:49 and I was so into it, and then I was like,

00:51 "I need these off of my head."

00:53 Yesterday, I swear they each weighed 20 pounds.

00:55 Maybe I'm being dramatic, but that's what it felt like.

00:57 And between shots, someone would have to hold them up for me

00:59 so they weren't pulling on my head.

01:01 Chris Faye styled this shoot, and she actually,

01:03 you'll hear her name a lot

01:05 because she styled most of my music videos.

01:06 I've always loved Lily Rose Depp's Met Gala look

01:10 with the Chanel and the gold chains,

01:12 and that's, like, one of my favorite outfits ever,

01:14 and I was really inspired by that.

01:16 Obviously, this is not Chanel.

01:18 It's, like, a pleather dress

01:20 that I honestly don't remember.

01:22 I think it might've been ordered off Amazon.

01:25 But I know we put on some belts.

01:26 I think I am wearing a Chanel belt.

01:28 This was a very scary scene for me.

01:30 Like, I was really nervous to do this.

01:32 I was nervous to walk on set in a bra and underwear.

01:34 Like, I've never been that bare on a music video

01:37 or any type of shoot before, and so I was just nervous.

01:39 But it was really nice, and everyone was so sweet

01:41 and supportive, and I actually, like, sat the whole time

01:44 and talking to all those girls, and they were all amazing,

01:46 and it was nice.

01:47 ♪ I know you'll go home ♪

01:50 This is "Home to Another One."

01:52 Came out in 2023, and it was directed by me

01:54 and Aaron Moreno, and it's off my new album,

01:57 "Silence Between Songs."

01:58 I had no idea what I wanted to do for this song,

02:00 which scared me a little bit, and then I was like,

02:02 "No, okay, let me just think about it in a different way."

02:04 To me, for some reason, like, home will always remind me

02:06 of E.T. and it'll always make me think of aliens.

02:08 So even the title alone, I always had this, like,

02:10 spacey kind of thing in my head already,

02:13 and I have another song called "Homesick"

02:15 off of my last album, "Life Support,"

02:17 that is a little alien, not on this planet related,

02:21 whatever, so I thought that it would be kind of cool

02:23 to tie that in, and I just landed on being an alien.

02:26 I'm gonna basically be dating an alien

02:29 who is cheating on his real life with me,

02:33 and then at the end of the video,

02:34 you get that reveal of she's been watching the whole time.

02:37 I don't know where I got this from.

02:39 I have no idea where it came from.

02:40 I definitely felt, like, you know, inspired by "Star Trek."

02:44 I love the show "Maniac" 'cause I feel like

02:45 that is, like, in the future,

02:47 but it feels like it's in the past.

02:48 There's this "Black Mirror" episode called "U.S.S. Callister"

02:51 that I think is so aesthetically awesome.

02:53 Shows, like, severance, whatever,

02:54 like the palette and the tone and all that stuff

02:56 is, to me, very, like, futuristic,

02:58 but also retro in a lot of ways,

03:00 and I felt like because I'm an alien

03:02 that is communicating with another alien,

03:03 you would assume I'm in the future,

03:05 but then I wanted my style to sort of be more so,

03:08 you know, yeah, like you said, '60s,

03:09 mod, vintage, whatever.

03:12 I love the polka dot look the most

03:14 because it's the least in my comfort zone, I guess.

03:16 Like, I've never worn super poofy sleeves

03:17 or anything like that, and I didn't even want to try it on,

03:21 and then I tried it on, and I was like, "Wait, it's cute,"

03:22 and so I love that one the best.

03:23 I think it's really sweet.

03:25 The outfit that I'm wearing on the UFO,

03:27 that was inspired by Barbarella,

03:29 and I wanted to do something that was, like,

03:30 similar, kind of, the essence of that,

03:33 and so I had that outfit custom-made,

03:35 and it was so uncomfortable.

03:37 Those are fake bangs.

03:38 They're clip-on bangs, and they look good.

03:42 Like, I have to say, they look real,

03:44 but the issue was because we had this shot

03:46 of, like, wind blowing and bangs flying.

03:49 There are some shots that I can show you.

03:52 They looked so funny in some shots,

03:53 and they just, like, fully would flip up.

03:55 It looked like I was wearing, like, a toupee or something.

03:56 I was like, "Yeah, I want bangs in the first shot,"

03:59 and I want that to be the shot that I get a blast of wind,

04:02 so have fun with that, everybody.

04:04 The makeup was kind of just, like,

04:06 I wanted to lean mainly into the '60s,

04:08 kind of, like, cut crease, mod eye.

04:10 I was sort of dreading being put into the VFX makeup

04:14 at the end of the day because I don't like things on my face

04:17 and paint all over my body.

04:18 Honestly, my on-screen boyfriend, his name is Jay Cain,

04:21 he made the video "The Easiest Day Ever."

04:23 Like, we all discussed and collectively agreed

04:25 that this video was the easiest video to shoot.

04:28 It was so fun.

04:29 It was like everyone was in such good spirit,

04:30 and honestly, he was in that makeup all day.

04:32 He was in that for 12 hours,

04:34 and he was just such a trooper, and he was, like, laughing,

04:37 and he would just kind of, like, bobble his head,

04:38 and his little antennas would move and make everyone laugh.

04:40 Like, he was just great, so I ended up not being as afraid

04:44 because I was like, "We'll be in this together,

04:45 "and it'll be fun."

04:46 The only issue was that we had about 20 minutes left

04:49 until we had to literally camera wrap.

04:51 There was no going over time.

04:52 Like, it was not happening.

04:54 So I had 20 minutes to get into this look

04:56 and shoot the shot, which is literally impossible.

04:59 But shout out to the VFX makeup artists

05:02 because they pulled it off somehow.

05:04 Within, like, seven minutes, I was completely transformed,

05:08 ran down to set, and we shot it.

05:10 ♪ Each day goes by and each night I cry ♪

05:13 My favorite video, "Reckless."

05:15 This came out in 2021.

05:17 It was directed by me and Amber Park,

05:19 and it is on my album, "The Silence Between Songs."

05:22 I honestly can't explain the creative vision

05:25 because this just was something that I saw

05:27 literally in a dream.

05:28 The driving force was the book,

05:29 was I was like, "I need a real-life, gigantic book,"

05:33 because the beginning of the song is like,

05:34 "This is a story I hate."

05:35 So that was the beginning.

05:36 That was, like, the main creative, was the storyline.

05:38 This was, I would say, the first real video

05:40 that I had a hand in directing in a serious way.

05:43 It was also this video I remember vividly sitting down

05:45 with Amber Park, who is my creative director.

05:48 I was like, "I want this blonde wig

05:50 "that's blonde at the top,

05:52 "and then it's black at the bottom."

05:53 The reason that we did the wig like that

05:55 was 'cause it matches the dress.

05:57 The dress goes from, like, blonde to black,

05:59 and I was like, "I want my hair to be the same."

06:02 So we shot all of it on a blue screen.

06:04 The book part was on a green screen.

06:06 Yeah, it was on a huge set, but the book is real.

06:08 The book is fully real, which was crazy.

06:10 So they actually also, the book literally says

06:12 all the lyrics, which is so cool.

06:13 But yeah, everything else is obviously VFX,

06:16 and it's just so amazing to me.

06:18 I mean, even that shot of the papier-mâché town

06:22 coming out of nowhere and then, like, falling,

06:24 I had that idea, and I was like,

06:25 "Yeah, but I don't know if it's gonna come out

06:26 "how I really want it to,

06:27 "and I really have a specific vision.

06:28 "I want all the buildings to have the lyrics on them,

06:30 "and then I want the floor of the book to open up."

06:32 And it just came out exactly how I wanted it to,

06:35 and that was so incredibly rewarding.

06:37 Very last shot of this video is me in the water.

06:42 Where is the water?

06:43 I don't know.

06:43 It was supposed to be in a water tank

06:44 on the set of the video.

06:46 We had it heating all day.

06:47 It was gonna be nice and warm for me, whatever.

06:49 I was walking to set, and I get told

06:51 that it exploded in the parking lot,

06:53 and the water tank is now gone,

06:54 and everyone's equipment is ruined,

06:56 and there's this whole, there's literally chaos.

06:58 Like, there's anarchy in the streets.

06:59 I was like, "Oh, cool, okay, great."

07:01 So how do we get the shot now?

07:02 There was, like, basically zero to no options,

07:05 and I was like, "I have a pool at my house.

07:07 "Is that, would that work?"

07:09 And they were like, "No."

07:09 And then they were like, "Maybe yes."

07:12 And we all literally hauled ass to my house,

07:15 and we lined my pool with, like, black garbage bags.

07:19 This shot is literally in my pool at three in the morning.

07:22 We're, like, five hours overtime.

07:24 Everyone is so tired, and literally at the end of the shoot,

07:26 most people ended up getting in the jacuzzi with me,

07:28 and it was great.

07:29 The shot with the pages at the end, too, I love,

07:32 but there was only, like, 10 real pages,

07:34 and they made it look like there was hundreds.

07:36 Very cool.

07:37 Everything's a lie.

07:39 It's real.

07:40 ♪ I want you to change it ♪

07:43 This is "Selfish."

07:45 This was released in 2020,

07:46 and it was directed by me and Jason Lester,

07:48 and it was on my album, "Life Support."

07:50 We did a few album photo shoots, and I felt disconnected,

07:53 and I was like, "Oh my God, I don't know what to do."

07:55 And then I had this vision of, like, yeah,

07:57 like something that was kind of, like, cut up, I guess.

08:00 And so this was compounded with the music video.

08:03 I was like, "We have to get the album artwork today,

08:05 "ideally."

08:07 And it was from that first opening shot.

08:08 It was literally just one of the moments where I sat up.

08:10 Now, every time this video starts, I get emotional,

08:12 'cause I'm just like, this was such a time for me,

08:14 and I had no idea when I was shooting it

08:16 that this would be such a pivotal moment in my career.

08:19 This whole video was actually, it doesn't seem like it,

08:21 but it was based off of the scene in "Alice in Wonderland"

08:23 where she cries, and it fills the room with tears,

08:26 and I was so inspired by that.

08:27 And then we were told, like,

08:28 "We don't have the money to shrink you

08:30 "and make you small and swim in your tears."

08:32 So we ended up, like, rejigging the budget

08:34 and making this happen.

08:36 When I cried, the rain was triggered.

08:38 So I knew that I was gonna have to cry this day.

08:41 So I mentally, well, I prepared in writing this song

08:44 and going through what I had to go through to write it.

08:46 But I was like, I need to get to a place

08:49 where I can kind of make myself cry.

08:51 So I was able to make myself cry,

08:53 but there's also this amazing thing called a tear stick,

08:55 and it's basically vapor rub,

08:57 and you just put it under your eyes,

08:58 and your eyes start to water.

09:00 So it was a combination of both of those things.

09:02 Honestly, I only had, like, Aquaphor

09:05 or something shiny on my lips here.

09:06 I didn't have any color on them.

09:07 This was the color that we put on the video.

09:09 Ended up making my lips look super pink.

09:11 That's not how it looked before we colored the video.

09:14 I was wearing, like, little to no makeup here.

09:16 I kind of only really had, like, some shadow underneath

09:19 to give my eyes kind of that crying kind of look

09:22 or whatever.

09:22 But we didn't do mascara 'cause we knew

09:23 that it was going to rain down hard.

09:26 The hardest part was the hair, though,

09:28 because it was like, if we don't get this in one take,

09:29 we're gonna have to spend an hour drying these,

09:31 again, like, 24-inch long extensions,

09:34 and it's gonna be a whole thing.

09:35 And these ones were also real extensions,

09:37 so I couldn't just clip them out.

09:38 And I started directing my music videos, like, a while ago

09:40 'cause I was just like, I feel like I'm coming up

09:42 with these ideas and then someone else is directing them,

09:45 and then that's kind of where things, like,

09:47 don't meet perfectly because, obviously,

09:49 they don't have my brain and I don't have theirs.

09:51 I was like, it's probably gonna be a challenge,

09:53 but I felt like I could do it,

09:54 and I felt like they would just come out

09:55 so much more accurately how I wanted them to

09:59 versus, like, giving someone full, you know,

10:01 directing control.

10:02 But it really has become such, like, a collaborative effort

10:04 and it's so much fun.

10:06 ♪ I don't speak boy s--t ♪

10:08 ♪ You're always coming back with your love s--t ♪

10:11 This is "Boy S--t."

10:12 This was released in 2021.

10:14 It was directed by Lauren Dunn,

10:16 and it's off my album "Life Support."

10:17 So I'm pretty positive that the beginning shot

10:20 is quite literally a template off the internet,

10:22 and I think it is somewhere in Italy,

10:24 and then we shot this in LA, I think in Pasadena.

10:27 So we're just, again, lying to you all the time.

10:31 Everything's a lie.

10:32 I just was thinking, like, European summer,

10:34 like, just, like, something lady-like.

10:38 I was like, "I just wanna look like a little lady."

10:39 I kept saying that.

10:40 Like, "I just wanna be like a little lady."

10:41 And I think that's what we accomplished.

10:42 These two outfits are arguably

10:44 my most important, pivotal ones

10:46 because they both inspired my tour outfit.

10:48 I do love the curtain bangs.

10:50 This hairstyle ended up becoming a hairstyle

10:51 I did all the time.

10:52 I loved, like, the pulled back whatever.

10:54 There's not a real, full storyline, I think, to this video,

10:58 which I think is interesting and really cool,

10:59 other than, obviously, there's, like,

11:00 a boy who's bothering me, as always.

11:03 I think the Heather's thing sort of comes in

11:05 with, like, the ominous, like, girl group that I have,

11:07 and there's, like, weird sort of cuts of them,

11:08 like, eating fruit or just, like, being, like, I don't know.

11:11 We just wanted this to feel kind of like,

11:13 what am I watching, but also I kind of am liking it.

11:17 I will give Lauren Dunn the credit on this one.

11:18 She came up with most of these things,

11:20 and I just was like, "I trust you.

11:22 "Let's do it."

11:23 ♪ Why can't I see ♪

11:25 ♪ You know it can't be this easy to let go ♪

11:30 - So this is "Dangerous."

11:30 It came out in 2022.

11:32 It was directed by me and Newton,

11:35 and it's off my album, "Sounds Between Songs."

11:37 This video was definitely inspired by the music.

11:39 The music is the most important part of this song,

11:41 and the song is very real to me

11:43 and about something just, like, super serious to me,

11:46 so I kind of avoid this song a little bit in this video

11:48 because it's very emotional.

11:49 Shooting it was very emotional.

11:51 It was hard to keep it together all day.

11:53 It was also hard to get on that stand that I'm standing on.

11:56 Like, that platform in that dress

11:57 was not easy to get up on.

11:59 I really wanted the music to be highlighted the most

12:01 because that's what, to me,

12:03 the most important part of this song is,

12:05 and the story of it.

12:05 I also couldn't act out the story.

12:08 It was, like, too personal, too much for me,

12:10 so I opted for this.

12:12 I didn't know what I wanted to be in.

12:14 I thought that I originally wanted to be in white

12:16 just to have it really pop,

12:17 and then I saw this dress, and I was like,

12:19 "I think this is perfect for some reason."

12:21 It made me feel like a princess, for sure.

12:23 I remember we did have a very shimmery eye for this video.

12:26 We kind of wanted to have this, like,

12:27 coppery, shimmery eye moment for it,

12:30 and I was also wearing a good amount of makeup.

12:33 I was wearing a lot of foundations.

12:34 We wanted it to just look very,

12:35 I wanted to feel like I was gonna perform

12:37 at a serious, like, recital or something,

12:40 and I was actually singing this,

12:41 and this is how I assumed I would dress and wear my makeup.

12:44 It was incredibly cool to shoot with a full orchestra,

12:46 and they were really playing the song,

12:47 and it was so hard to keep it together.

12:50 It was just so beautiful.

12:51 It sounded so amazing.

12:52 I mean, we have a harp.

12:53 It just was, it was just crazy,

12:55 and it was so emotional for me,

12:57 and these people were so talented and so amazing,

13:00 and also sweet.

13:01 We had such a fun day.

13:02 Yeah, it was a really pleasant shoot.

13:04 I got to just listen to an orchestral version

13:06 of my song all day.

13:06 The moment at the end of the video

13:08 where I'm sitting by myself,

13:09 and all the lights turn off on me

13:11 is just representative of kind of how I feel

13:14 in general sometimes, also how that song feels to me,

13:18 and I felt like it was important,

13:19 because even if I did have a performance, you know, per se,

13:23 I feel like I would still end up feeling alone, I guess,

13:27 but yeah, I felt like it was important.

13:29 I really wanted this moment.

13:31 ♪ The world has stopped spinning ♪

13:35 ♪ The end is near ♪

13:37 So this is "Spinnin'."

13:38 This was released in 2023,

13:40 and it was directed by myself and Aaron Marano,

13:43 and it's on my album, "Silence Between Songs."

13:45 This video is, I think, my favorite one I've ever released.

13:48 It just feels very representative

13:50 of this kind of new era, new version of myself,

13:54 and just growing and evolving in so many ways.

13:57 It's also representative of things

13:58 that I feel like I went through to make this album,

14:01 and feeling kind of alone and whatnot.

14:03 I knew I wanted this video to feel like a short film.

14:05 That was very clear in my head.

14:07 I was like, "I want this to feel

14:08 "kind of like a mini movie in some way."

14:10 So we shot this at a really awesome location in Pomona,

14:13 and it's kind of this abandoned,

14:15 now used to rent out as a space.

14:17 Like, it was, I think it was like

14:18 a hospital treatment center of some sort.

14:21 And it was, the houses was where,

14:23 I was told, like, nurses and doctors lived,

14:25 and then there's like a scene

14:26 where I'm banging on the door of the library,

14:27 and that was like a real place that people used.

14:30 And it was just, it was crazy.

14:31 It was basically, we had a whole little

14:32 mini town to ourselves,

14:34 and I was very, very stern on a cornfield.

14:37 I was like, "I need a cornfield."

14:39 And they had a cornfield on this set,

14:41 literally in the town.

14:42 They just coincidentally happened

14:43 to have a humongous cornfield.

14:45 And I was like, "This was meant to be."

14:47 That's my puppy, that's Presley.

14:49 That's my baby.

14:50 He, all my fans all the time were like,

14:52 "Please, Presley, can he please make a debut in a video?"

14:55 And I'm like, "Sure."

14:56 And so, he was on set with us.

14:58 He was being a very good boy, as always.

15:00 So, Erin and I, when we sat down to create this video,

15:03 we were, she was like, "I really want you

15:06 "to feel confident, like, wearing nothing."

15:08 Because, you know, every time she comes to my house,

15:09 and we're like doing the treatments and whatnot,

15:11 I am wearing nothing.

15:12 And she's like, "I feel like this video

15:13 "was really calling for that."

15:14 And I was like, "Oh my goodness, okay."

15:16 So, we did, we ended up literally doing nothing,

15:19 except for, like I said, kind of was selfish.

15:22 We did like the red, kind of under eye sort of thing,

15:24 and whatever, but it was very, very minimal.

15:26 I don't even think I was wearing concealer

15:28 of any kind on this day.

15:29 It can be intimidating to make a music video

15:31 that you, you know, hope will get a ton of views,

15:33 and have no makeup on, obviously,

15:34 especially in this day and age.

15:35 But I was like, "You know what, no, you're right.

15:37 "This is an important artistic choice."

15:38 You know, there's like a very specific shot in this video,

15:40 like this Kubrick shot from The Shining,

15:42 and it's like underneath, so I'm banging on the door.

15:44 And that's not like the most flattering angle,

15:46 but I was like, "We're doing it.

15:47 "That shot is really cool."

15:48 And I was just trying to like let go,

15:49 and I think even that in itself was very representative

15:52 of the album to me.

15:53 It's just like learning more about myself internally,

15:57 and caring a lot less about the other stuff,

15:58 and this video is like kind of representative of that.

16:01 Amelia Cring styled me for this, who, she's amazing,

16:04 and I love her style so much.

16:05 And we just knew we wanted it to feel

16:08 like it wasn't style, but like, you know, whatever.

16:10 We had, we did have a mood board,

16:11 even though I'm just wearing like socks and a T-shirt,

16:13 and pajamas underneath it.

16:15 We did have a mood board in this.

16:16 All of it was intentional.

16:17 So I actually released a teaser with the clock in it,

16:20 and it said the release date of the song,

16:22 and then I kind of surprised my fans with a change

16:25 that when they watched the video,

16:26 it was changed to the release of the album date.

16:28 Yeah, I don't know, I mean, we were discussing

16:30 like what do we want the clock to say,

16:31 and I was like, "I feel like the only date

16:33 "that makes sense is September 15th."

16:34 So that's what we decided to do.

16:36 The day the world stops spinning.

16:38 Thank you so much, Allure.

16:39 I hope you guys enjoyed me breaking down

16:41 my favorite music videos,

16:42 and I can't wait to do it again with you soon.

16:44 (kissing)

16:45 Bye.

16:46 (upbeat music)

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