Graham Norton and Lewis Capaldi both star in a surreal new music video from Taylor Swift.
The video for Opalite premiered on Friday, and stars Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson as a “lonely man” who summons Swift into his life by spraying a magic potion on his beloved cactus.
Scottish singer Capaldi takes the role of a photographer who becomes enamoured with the couple, while Norton plays a salesman who claims to be able to reverse the spell.
The hilarious, 1980s-set video was directed by Swift and also stars actors Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith. The casting was inspired by an episode of Norton’s BBC chat show, on which the stars appeared together last October.
Writing on Instagram, Swift described Norton as an “insanely charismatic and lovable host”, adding that she felt “ridiculously lucky” to have been paired with the other guests that night.
“When we were all talking during the broadcast, Domhnall made a light hearted joke about wanting to be in one of my music videos,” she recalled. “I was instantly struck with an *idea*.
“And so a week later, he received an email script I’d written for the Opalite video, where he was playing the starring role.
“I had this thought that it would be wild if all of our fellow guests on the Graham Norton show that night, including Graham himself, could be a part of it too.”
Norton described appearing in the video as “the thrill of a lifetime and the hardest secret I’ve ever had to keep!”
During last year’s chat show appearance, Swift complimented Gleeson’s performance in the sitcom The Paper, saying she “loved” the programme.
Murphy then joked: “It’s worth watching for Domhnall’s dancing alone”.
To which Gleeson replied: “I’m hoping to get into a Taylor Swift music video”.
Swift responded with a look of shock – but she made his wish come true in a blue tracksuited sequence half-way through the completed video.
Their original conversation, as broadcast on BBC One, plays out over the clip’s end credits.
Opalite is the second single from Swift’s blockbuster 12th album, The Life Of A Showgirl, which was the biggest-selling record in the UK last year.
The singer said she wrote the song about her fiancé, NFL player Travis Kelce, whose birthstone is opal.
Opalite is a man-made version of the stone – which Swift uses as a metaphor for the fact her happiness is a tangible, human phenomenon, instead of a product of luck or magic.
The music video was released exclusively on Spotify and Apple Music on Friday, and will not appear on YouTube for 48 hours.
Industry analysts have speculated that the exclusivity period is due to a change in the US chart rules, where songs streamed on YouTube will no longer count towards the Top 100.
The BBC has asked Swift’s team for clarification but has yet to receive a response.
