Who knew Ariana Grande was both a literary buff and a cinephile? Her new video for is not just based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” but, specifically, Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 take on the classic tale, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in the leading roles.
The video focuses on the story’s giant masquerade party, with Grande as Juliet and her pals dolled up in massive gowns. And while it would have been easy to cast the song’s collaborator Big Sean as the singer’s star-crossed love interest, instead he plays the Priest, with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dreamboat son, Patrick, in the role of Romeo.
The video doesn’t stray too far from the events written by Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet lock eyes at the masquerade gala, flirt and fall for one another after Romeo and his pals scale the gate and crash the fete. Sean doesn’t ever interact with the young lovers; instead he only appears in cutaways chilling in the church in couture.
The clothes might be very old school, but blame that Grande’s fascination with the ’90s (she got very ’90s in her ) in this clip. In fact, Romeo and his Hawaiian-shirt wearing pals look a lot like the bad boys from Lurhmann’s version of the events.
Heck, there’s even a guy dressed up like an astronaut, which might not only pay homage to the directors, The Young Astronauts (who also directed Grande in her “Almost Is Never Enough” video), but also Paul Rudd’s costume in Luhrmann’s flick.
In fact, much like in the Luhrmann movie, this Romeo and Juliet even exchange some steamy kisses in a pool, but this time there’s synchronized swimmers. That’s just the kind of schmaltz that Luhrmann would appreciate.
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