Taylor Swift Releases 2 “Opalite” Extended Music Video Versions

When Taylor Swift first premiered her “Opalite” music video on Feb. 6, fans were quick to point out a blink-and-you-miss-it sign that read: “PATIENT FOR THE ENCORE.” And indeed, a week later, the Life of a Showgirl hitmaker dropped another treat for fans — a two-part extended version that shows how the “Opalite” music video was made.

“I never want to forget a single detail of this hysterical shoot, and now I don’t have to!” Swift wrote on social media about the new footage, which debuted on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal.

She Explained The “Opalite” Video

In the first of the two behind-the-scenes videos, Swift opens up about the visual meaning of “Opalite.”

“In our metaphor, inanimate objects represent the kind of toxic relationship they’re in,” she explains of her and Domhnall Gleeson’s lovelorn characters. “So I think I’m best friends with this rock who is always weighing me down.”

Similarly, Gleeson’s character is “in a toxic relationship with a cactus where he’s getting hurt every day,” Swift said, tracking with fan theories that the items in the video symbolize challenging relationship dynamics.

As Gleeson shares in the video, “The whole cactus as a girlfriend thing is complicated — but it’s nice, I think the idea of finding the right person is the whole thing.”

Cameo Chaos

The extended footage features a closer look at Swift’s on-set interactions with Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Graham Norton, Lewis Capaldi, and Gleeson. She was inspired to work with them after they appeared together on The Graham Norton Show last fall. (Cillian Murphy, who was also a guest, lent his voice to the “Opalite” infomercial.) Before that fateful late-night appearance, Swift says she wondered for a year: “What would I do for the ‘Opalite’ video?”

Fortunately, her new friends were up to the task — even if, in Gleeson’s case, he didn’t know exactly what he was signing up for. “I didn’t really tell Dom that he was gonna dance,” Swift says.

Gleeson was shook about learning he would be dancing after arriving on set. “This dance thing is new! I want everyone to know that,” he tells the camera.

He moves past it quickly, though, laughing in his tracksuit costume as Swift says: “I just thought it might be better to tell him in person.” Of course, given the pair’s dance routine is supposed to be pretty unpolished — it gets unanimous zeroes from the judges — it seems the lack of lead time worked out OK.