Chris Marrs Piliero takes us behind the crime sprees and 'sexy time.'
By Jocelyn Vena, with additional reporting by Vanessa White Wolf
Jason Trawick and Britney Spears in "Criminal"
Photo: Jive
Britney Spears and real-life boyfriend Jason Trawick go on a sexy crime spree in her new "Criminal" video, which follows the pair around London as they hold up banks and convenience stores in between NSFW scenes of the duo getting physical in their hideout.
MTV News caught up with the director, Chris Marrs Piliero, who opened up about casting Trawick and the video's use of guns, leading us through the clip frame by frame.
The video opens with Spears and her rich boyfriend at a glamorous get-together. But things are not as pretty as the party itself. "So here we are at the fancy-schmancy par-tay, [and] one of my directions for her little turnaround reveal was in 'Can't Hardly Wait' when Jennifer Love Hewitt ... walks into the party. ... The actor who plays her d-----bag boyfriend, his name is Freddie, and actually it's his first acting role."
Britney then goes into the lady's room to cry about Freddie's jabs at her, and when she comes out, she sees him flirting with another woman. "For this, I wanted to come up with a really cool line," he said. "I was trying to come up with something that had attitude but was TV-safe, so we went with that," he explained about Britney's crack "So, you're not working the street corner tonight, I see."
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When Britney does leave the party, dragged out by her boyfriend, Trawick's bad-boy character comes to the rescue. "The punching was just awesome," Piliero said. "We were watching that, and we were all looking at each other like, 'Is he really hitting him?' "
Of course, Spears gets in her kick to his groin too. "I love her face when she goes for the kick," he added. "She's so good at delivering those fun lines."
Eventually, Brit and Jason's attraction takes over, as they share a kiss and then a whole lot more. "It's time for sexy time," Piliero joked of their naked romp. "So during the bed sex scene, the first take that we did of it, I let the camera roll. ... From that point on, I was just calling out stuff, just directing them ... and it was a really smooth, comfortable experience, actually. And Jason is ripped beyond belief. It's kind of ridiculous."
Britney soon gets caught up in Jason's world of crime. Her first offense? Holding up a convenience store, where she also grabbed some vanilla candles, a nod to her real-life love of them. "There she is yelling at the guy," he said. "That was fun. She really got into it.
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"[The] slo-mo shot of them running out [was] very, very cool," he continued. "I love when Jason just kind of throws the woman to the side."
Between crime sprees, the two make time for a very revealing shower scene. "Sexy time in the shower, which is just super hot," he said. "We did the shower scene after the bed scene.. so it was pretty painless and smooth."
The video ends up with the cops closing in on the pair with a parade of bullets being shot into their flat before they make their getaway, driving off into the sunset together.
"We got a bunch of cops here ready to shoot," he said. "Obviously, there's a lot of crime history here. That's why they're ready to go crazy and fire on them. To me, it's awesome to see this shot [because] this is exactly how I pictured it. Their kiss is magical and badass. It's a really epic, cool-looking scene."
What did you think of the "Criminal" video? Share your reviews in the comments!
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