The director of Taylor Swift’s latest music video has responded to claims the short film has racist connotations, saying the creative team decided it would have been “historically inaccurate” to include more black actors.
"Wildest Dreams", which is taken from Swift’s fifth album 1989, is set in an undisclosed part of Africa during the 1950s and sees the singer playing an actress who has a love affair with her co-star on set. It features sweeping shots of waterfalls, plains and scenery and has Swift pose with lions and giraffes throughout.
Critics have attacked director Joseph Khan, who directed Swift’s videos for "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood", for featuring a predominantly white cast and for presenting a “glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa”.
But Khan has responded in a public statement, saying it “is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950” and that it pays homage to classic Hollywood romances such as the one between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
He says there are Black Africans “in a number of shots” but the vast majority of shots were of Swift and her co-star, played by Scott Eastwood.
“The reality is not only were there people of colour in the video, but the key creatives who worked on this video are people of colour," he said.
"I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man.”
He added that they collectively decided it would be “historically inaccurate” to have more black actors on set, “as the video would have been accused of rewriting history.
“We are all proud of our work.”
Swift has not responded to the comments.
