Laufey as Screen ‘Goddess’: How Working With ‘Past Lives’ Director Celine Song and Co-Star Will Gao on New Music Video Gave the Singer Her First Real Acting Gig
11.04.2024 - 15:09
/ variety.com
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The title of Laufey‘s new single and music video, “Goddess,” is intended somewhat ironically. The storyline of both has a star feeling she’s let down a lover who only wanted the glamorous version of her he’d seen on stage, not the everyday person.
But, in the unironic sense, Laufey does take a big step toward possibly becoming a screen goddess, of sorts, by having starred in a short film that may serve as a calling card for a possible move into film or TV roles. It doesn’t hurt, when you feel like you’re truly acting for the first time, to have no less famous a director than Oscar-nominated “Past Lives” filmmaker Celine Song at the helm.
Song is making her music video debut with “Goddess” — although this is being referred to more often as a “short film,” a label it can justifiably carry, between its naturalistic flavor, lack of lip-synched lyrics and, on top of everything else, the fact that Song shot it on 35mm film. It also can’t hurt when her co-star is an actor with a following of his own, Will Gao, of Netflix/”Heartstopper” fame, although Laufey says that her real connection with Gao was through his own musical endeavors.
“Goddess” is the leadoff single from a deluxe edition of Laufey’s Grammy-winning “Bewitched” album, which arrives later this month, expanding upon the singer-songwriter’s heralded fusion of the jazz, pop-standards and classical styles she grew up mastering and the contemporary, Swiftie-era pop she equally loves. Laufey got on a Zoom with Variety on the eve of the “Goddess” short coming out to discuss hooking up with Song and Gao, her acting aspirations, and instantly selling out her summer Hollywood Bowl show with the LA Philharmonic.