My Blog

lorrianechen

'Hold It Against Me' director debunks reports that Spears didn't do her own dancing.
By Jocelyn Vena

Britney Spears
Photo: Jeremy Cowart/ WireImage

With fans' excitement at a fever pitch for the release of Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" video, the clip's director, Jonas Åkerlund, is opening up about working with the singer and is shutting down rumors that Spears didn't do her own dancing in the video.

"[Britney's] been great throughout the entire process. At the end of the shoot I got the warmest hug I ever got from an artist, and I look forward to hugging her again very soon!" Åkerlund told TMZ in a statement. He added, "I've been around long enough to know when an artist gives it their all, and to me it doesn't get better than this. This video is gonna be f---ing awesome. It's all Britney."

The statement comes after TMZ reported that the director decided to use a dance double named Allison Kyler for the star when it seemed like she hadn't rehearsed her moves enough. Spears reportedly left the set crying on the second day of shooting. Her camp strongly denies the report.

"The accusations could not be further from the truth," a rep for Spears said. "Britney worked extremely hard on this video and rehearsed for six weeks prior to shooting. Brit and Jonas got along great. ... Fans will immediately see how inaccurate these claims are once they see the video."

The video's choreographer, Brian Friedman, recently chatted with MTV News about the clip and dished on how he upped the ante for Britney this time around. His statements seem to mirror those of Åkerlund's and her camp's.

"I didn't necessarily have pressure with this — it was more excitement," Friedman said of working with the pop diva again. "I haven't been with Britney in five years on a project, so it was excitement to be back with her. It was excitement to get her dancing really hard again 'cause she's had a couple of years where she's been dancing different styles of dance and it hasn't been me.

"It's not necessarily that she hasn't been dancing, it hasn't been what I get from her, and what I seem to get from her is this tigress quality," he continued. "And she prowls. She really dominates when she does my choreography, and that's what I wanted to get back. Excited yes, scared no."

Related Videos