Bonnie Wright Directs Music Video for Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson

by · October 8, 2018

Bonnie Wright’s directorial career continues with the recent release of the cinematic music video of Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson’s song “Iguana Bird.” To celebrate the video’s release last week, Wright talked to Paper about the project.

Wright spoke about the choice to not include Yorn or Johansson in the video.

[Yorn and Johansson] wanted the video to be more of a short film and consciously were not going to be in the clip. This gave me free reign creatively to dream up a character and I was attracted to dance because it is such a beautiful way to see someone process feelings. I am often drawn to very cathartic storylines and this was the first time I have utilized dance as a method to tell that kind of story.

Wright discovered Nicola Collie, the principal dancer of the music video, on Instagram.

A clothing label I love for their creative direction called Paloma Wool had posted a video of her dancing and I fell in love with her movement. It was such a joy to direct Nicola; she is so intuitive and her improvisational style led to such a free form of filmmaking. You often don’t get much time to rehearse but as this was our first project together we made sure we did and that time became invaluable for the character we were creating and personally for us both to get to know one another.

Wright also got a chance to discuss her production company.

I formed my production company in the last year of film school; it was actually an assignment to build a website as part of our degree and by that point bonniewright.com was taken so I saw is at as an opportunity to dream up a name. Bon is my nickname and Lumière is light in French and film captures light so my company was named BonBonLumière. Being able to produce my own work has given me the freedom to express and process my ideas and feelings. I love directing because I get to [be] part of every element of filmmaking and I have been fortunate to collaborate with such a wide variety of my contemporaries from London to Los Angeles.

Watch the mesmerizing video below, and read Wright’s full interview with Paper here.