Upon the video’s release, Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” video went instantly viral. The song’s raunchy lyrics combined with the NSFW visuals recieved reactions from everyone from Fox News host Tucker Carlson to even the animal rights organization PETA. The video’s director, Colin Tilley, was pleasantly surprised about the video’s overwhelming response, especially with the multitude of memes created from the visual. In an interview, Tilley broke down the filming process, behind-the-scenes footage, and all the challenges the production crew faced along the way.
“You start seeing people’s reactions and you’re like, ‘Okay, I think we were right here,'” Tilley said about the video’s breakout success in an interview with Genius. Tilley continued that the production window for the shoot was fairly short and his crew only had three weeks to make Cardi’s vision a reality. After brainstorming with the rapper, Tilley knew he wanted to make the video have “a little bit more innocence than the song.”
While most of the filming went off without a hitch, there were a few difficulties along the way. In particular, the scene where the two rappers are covered in snakes led to a few problems. Not only did a snake pee on Cardi, but one managed to wrap itself around Meg’s neck and body. “A lot of the snakes in this scene were real and it was pretty much the funniest thing ever to see their reactions to seeing some of the snakes at first,” Tilley said. “I don’t think I would put those snakes on me.”
Watch Colin Tilley break down the viral clip above.
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