Harry Styles is a legendarily good sport. How good? When his old pal James Corden suggested they hit the streets of Brooklyn on Thursday night’s (May 26) Late Late Show in search of someone willing to let them shoot a low-budget video for the swaying Harry’s House ballad “Daylight,” the singer said he’d give it a shot.
Was he psyched about it? Not really.
Especially after first-time director Corden and crew knocked on a few doors in search of a location for their 3-hour, $300 production and got turned down twice. But, undeterred, they knocked on a third and found the perfect spot: a flat that just happened to be occupied by quartet of young women who were properly gobsmacked when they found out who the video star was. “This isn’t real!” said one as she covered her face in disbelief.
After inviting them into the shockingly spacious space — which included one woman’s room larded with so much Styles and One Direction memorabilia that Corden called her a “crazy psychopath” after spotting a Harry-as-Harry-Potter drawing — they got to work filming the clip with the aid of a closetful of silly props.
Harry was game, but his patience for novice director Corden’s set-ups started to run thin around the time James asked if the singer could take his shirt off for a moody “sexy as f–k” bathtub shot. “Should we just scrap it? Is it too late to do a Carpool Karaoke?” Harry asked amid the endless silly direction from James. “I can’t stress this enough, this was all James’ idea,” Harry lamented, reminding viewers that he was in a Christopher Nolan movie.
Things cranked up when the ladies invited a bunch of their friends over for a party scene and the pair hit the possibly not safe roof for a special effects shot in which Corden donned a skintight green screen morph suit for a bit where bluebirds appear to fly around Harry’s head. The singer, however, was distracted by Corden’s, let’s say lower third. “Yeah, you’re not allowed to show the outline of a phallus on CBS,” Corden said as Harry playfully knocked on his director’s protective cup.
There were floating golden hats, silly sparkly vests, an apartment full of superfans encouraging Harry to scarf pizza, 100 glowsticks and one pop star who, surprisingly, ended up looking kind of cool in the end.
Watch the making-of and the final version below.
