It’s a love story? No, 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, with Dakota Johnson and Colin Ferrell amping up the tension.
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.
The singer’s remarks 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 wany 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.
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.
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.”
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.”
