This Day in Pop: 'Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know' music video premieres in 2001 (March 02)

[PokemonSpears]

 

 

On March 02, 2001, Britney Spears' Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know music video premiered on TRL. The last music video off the Oops!... I Did It Again album was directed by Herb Ritts, who passed away the following year, on December 2002.

 

 

The video was shot in two days in Miami, Florida during the last week of January. Britney, who had already been photographed by Ritts in 1999, picked him as the director inspired by his work with Madonna (Cherish, 1989) and Janet Jackson (Love Will Never Do (Without You), 1989). Herb Ritts' signature was to film his videos in black and white, but that was not the case for DLMBTLTK. In an interview for Rolling Stone, he talked about the video:

Quote

"She just wanted to do something fresh," says Ritts, who was immediately won over by Spears' determination, not to mention her acting ability. "There was one outfit, no dancing, and that meant that it boiled down to her. She really had to act the song, and she was very impressive."

"The story is, pretty much, Britney longing for him to tell her the words," says Ritts. "The chemistry between them was great. They got along terrificly."

 

The video debuted at #1 on TRL and topped this list a number of times throughout its run. Despite Britney saying it "was the funnest video I've ever done," it was reported that both her mom Lynne and then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake weren't as excited about the clip, which shows Britney wearing just a bikini top and denim shorts, cuddling and kissing a shirtless man at the beach. The video in fact was revised and the most "raunchy" scenes were cut out of the official version. However, the cut content and some bloopers were released later on 2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative DVD.

 

In 2002, the French model Brice Durand, who plays Britney's interest in the video, gave an interview for journalist Sean Bickerton where he talked about his experience filming the video, from being picked after a messy casting audition to working with Britney Spears and Herb Ritts.

 

He narrated the day he did the audition: "It was a Thursday horrible - it was raining very hard, I had had a long day, five or six appointments, and a friend was taking me to all of them on his motorcycle, so I was getting all wet. My jeans were soaked, my hair was a mess, I was totally deplorable. So I was just calling my agent to tell them that I had completed the days when they told me to go to an audition for a clip of Britney Spears. At this point I was so messy, I was dirty and wanted nothing more than to go home and dry up, but I thought "Who cares, I'm at it," without expecting anything." He said they had auditioned more than six hundred guys: 200 from L.A., 200 from N.Y. and 200 from Miami. When he arrived, everyone had already gone, and there were just a pile of cards everywhere and he thought he had no chance.

Quote

 

They asked me to stay only in underwear, but they could not tell me what they wanted - they all said that I should pretend it was a clip of Britney Spears and that I should like it. Then I said, "Well, what you really want me to do, I will pretend that the camera is Britney Spears, I must pretend she is beside me, you want me to dance with her, what?" And for all that I suggested they said, "Oh yeah, that's good, let's try," which made me angry because there was no clear direction.

Then after I started, I liked, and so they said "Thank you, that's fine" I wear my clothes as fast as I could. I really thought it was a waste of time, so I just left my card on the table trying to go quickly.

But the casting agent turned out to be a very nice person, and then she stopped me and asked, with a small smile on his face: "Do you even know who is Britney Spears?" Because she realized that I did not give a damn. So I replied "Yes, she is that blonde girl who dances around and sings that she is the hottest thing in the world." The woman burst into laughter, so I said I knew that Britney was the cat at the moment, but I was not a fan of her music. And with that I left, thinking to myself, "Okay man, you really messed up." When I got home, I told my girlfriend that I definitely would not do the video of Britney Spears, I was sure.

 

The next Sunday he got a call telling him that he was accepted for the video, and was informed that he would be the only model appearing with Britney on the shoot. In the interview he explains sometimes it's hard to work with female models for photoshoots and such, where they can get mad if you put your hand where you shouldn't or they think he's being flirty when he's just trying to be as realistic as possible while keeping it professional. He thus thought Britney would be no exception, and was expecting a diva behavior from her.

Quote

So, Britney was difficult?
Not at all. It was really cool, it was amazing. We began to talk easily. She asked me about weight because she thought I had a great belly and she wanted to know what was my routine. At first I thought she was just being polite, but she was really interested, asked many things, and basically she wanted to talk about anything that was not her music, which was another surprise.

She asked about my girlfriend and I told her, and when I asked about her boyfriend, she said she was dating a guy from 'NSync, but I did not know who she was talking and she said, "You mean that not know the Justin Timberlake of 'NSync? I told her: "I'm sorry, but I do not know who he is, I'm terrible with all these pop groups. She found it very funny and laughed.

And since I knew nothing about her music, I asked how many hits she had and she told me about "Oops," and I was like "Oops? What is this?" She laughed as she thought it was really great, there was the only guy in the world that knew nothing about her music making a clip with it.

It was totally awesome anyway, and we had a great time together throughout the recording. The first day we were really icing on the beach was very cold. But even on a cold beach, wearing very little and fully exposed to the wind, Britney was amazing. She was always up and having fun the whole world, a professional track.

He said that even though they improvised a little on the scenes, Herb Ritts was always giving them direction making sure everything went well, and also praised Britney for always nailing her scenes in one take.

 

Related:

 

[Jordan Miller]

One of her best singles ever. Fight me

Awesome post @PokemonSpears!!

[Dussiniers]

Amazing job Pokemono  I always enjoy This Day in Pop: Britney, don't know what happened with the Onyx Hotel ThisDayInPop you made is just the tittle and a video  Work Bxxx hhahaah. 

 

 

Edit: Thank you @PokemonSpears I really enjoyed this whole "article" great interview from the model  

[PokemonSpears]

18 minutes ago, Dussiniers said:

Amazing job Pokemono  I always enjoy This Day in Pop: Britney, don't know what happened with the Onyx Hotel ThisDayInPop you made is just the tittle and a video  Work Bxxx hhahaah. 

 

 

Edit: Thank you @PokemonSpears I really enjoyed this whole "article" great interview from the model  

I haven't been able to do it, it was very late last night, and today I'll be busy with work  

[franckolat1]

Thank you so much for the post. Great read! I'm a big fan of DLMBTLTK, both the song and the video.

[princessmimi]

Man she looks SO beautiful in this video!
This was VERY steamy and the beginning of her **** videos/persona

[princessmimi]

Also if the final product is already ***ual on its own,

I cant imagine how "raunchy" the outtakes are.

I hope they're not ****ographic

[Isla]

A truly breathtaking video, she looks so beautiful throughout. 

[Stefani]

One of my favorite early Britney singles. 

[SJK]

Honestly one of my favorite videos from Britney. 
The whole aesthetic is on point!! Andddd it’s written by none other then Shania herself as I’m sure you’re all aware. 😊

[bitbitboi]

I learned that s/x existed with this video.

I lost my virginity to this video.

Beauty? Art? Explained all here.

[PokemonSpears]

so were these the original shorts from the video or they're new?

 

[ColdAsFire88]

So baby if you love me 

[Guest]

I never cared that much about the song, but the video is so good. She looks so perfect

[Guest]

On 3/2/2021 at 5:55 AM, PokemonSpears said:

 

 

On March 02, 2001, Britney Spears' Don't Let Me Be the Last to Know music video premiered on TRL. The last music video off the Oops!... I Did It Again album was directed by Herb Ritts, who passed away the following year, on December 2002.

 

 

The video was shot in two days in Miami, Florida during the last week of January. Britney, who had already been photographed by Ritts in 1999, picked him as the director inspired by his work with Madonna (Cherish, 1989) and Janet Jackson (Love Will Never Do (Without You), 1989). Herb Ritts' signature was to film his videos in black and white, but that was not the case for DLMBTLTK. In an interview for Rolling Stone, he talked about the video:

 

The video debuted at #1 on TRL and topped this list a number of times throughout its run. Despite Britney saying it "was the funnest video I've ever done," it was reported that both her mom Lynne and then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake weren't as excited about the clip, which shows Britney wearing just a bikini top and denim shorts, cuddling and kissing a shirtless man at the beach. The video in fact was revised and the most "raunchy" scenes were cut out of the official version. However, the cut content and some bloopers were released later on 2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative DVD.

 

In 2002, the French model Brice Durand, who plays Britney's interest in the video, gave an interview for journalist Sean Bickerton where he talked about his experience filming the video, from being picked after a messy casting audition to working with Britney Spears and Herb Ritts.

 

He narrated the day he did the audition: "It was a Thursday horrible - it was raining very hard, I had had a long day, five or six appointments, and a friend was taking me to all of them on his motorcycle, so I was getting all wet. My jeans were soaked, my hair was a mess, I was totally deplorable. So I was just calling my agent to tell them that I had completed the days when they told me to go to an audition for a clip of Britney Spears. At this point I was so messy, I was dirty and wanted nothing more than to go home and dry up, but I thought "Who cares, I'm at it," without expecting anything." He said they had auditioned more than six hundred guys: 200 from L.A., 200 from N.Y. and 200 from Miami. When he arrived, everyone had already gone, and there were just a pile of cards everywhere and he thought he had no chance.

The next Sunday he got a call telling him that he was accepted for the video, and was informed that he would be the only model appearing with Britney on the shoot. In the interview he explains sometimes it's hard to work with female models for photoshoots and such, where they can get mad if you put your hand where you shouldn't or they think he's being flirty when he's just trying to be as realistic as possible while keeping it professional. He thus thought Britney would be no exception, and was expecting a diva behavior from her.

He said that even though they improvised a little on the scenes, Herb Ritts was always giving them direction making sure everything went well, and also praised Britney for always nailing her scenes in one take.

 

Related:

 

These rumours were def true 

18:35 

33:45 and 38:10

 

Free: Oh yea, because you don’t have to kiss that girl in that video. You can act like your kissing without kissing, but you know it’s the entertainment business, and you gotta understand…and Britney knows she was in a guy in her last video. 

AJ: Lucky… Did you get mad about that? 

Justin: You can’t, you can’t. I know she didn’t mean it, and she loves me with all her heart. 

*AWWWs all around studio* 

Justin: Ohh, I hear yall. 

Free: Do you go to the video set or you just stay away? 

Justin: I mean, yea..come on. I wouldn’t wanna put myself there you know 

AJ: That’s over the limit… 

Justin: yea…you just trust, you trust. 

 

Justin admits that after filming the video, he did get flack from Britney but he didn’t feel the same for her videos with other men saying, “You can’t, you can’t. I know she didn’t mean it, and she loves me with all her heart.”

https://popdirt.com/britney-spears-plans-to-marry-justin-in-2002/789/

 

October 15, 2001 – World Online reports Britney Spears sounding off on *NSYNC’s new video for ‘Gone’ which features Justin Timberlake singing seductively to a beautiful girl. Spears says, “I personally don’t like it, seeing him do things like that. I prefer not to watch. He doesn’t like seeing me do it either but it’s part of what we do. Artistically it brings the video to life.”

https://popdirt.com/britney-and-justin-attend-strip-bar-for-pointers/601/ 

But he was less comfortable with another scene: The first time Justin saw her kissing Mount on screen, he had to turn his face away.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-02-12-0202120026-story.html 

 

Quote

Funnily enough, some months after she filmed DLMBTLTK, he kissed a girl on the Gone video (a song about her), directed by Herb Ritts too, and we all know Justin is a vengeful petty bitter pressed boi

 

[britisthecolor]

whenever I watch that video, I feel sad that I wasn't born with that face.this is the prettiest she has ever looked imo.

[Goten21]

wow I accidentally clicked on this thread but the interview that model gave is really cool

 

They must've liked him because it's way hotter if the guy shows a bit that he doesn't care

[rennen]

What the model said about her  I'd never heard that before.

[PokemonSpears]

[runoncoldfire]

Simply gorgeous and one of my favorite songs!