Sunday, Beyoncé’s video for “Pretty Hurts” has the possibility of taking home the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video with a Social Message.
Released as part of her surprise self-titled album in December 2013, “Pretty Hurts” has already racked up more than 45 million views on YouTube.
Beyoncé opened up about the message behind the song, which centers around the pressures on women to have outer beauty, during an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at her making of the video.
“It’s really about inner beauty and substance.” Beyonce said. “That song represents finding that one thing in the world that makes you really happy…. Some of the things that young women go through, it’s just really heartbreaking for me.”
Supermodel Shaun Ross briefly appeared in Beyoncé’s 2011 video for “Party” but has a principal role in “Pretty Hurts,” playing a cruel beauty pageant coach.
In an interview with theGrio’s Chris Witherspoon, Ross opened up about how landed a role in “Pretty Hurts.”
Shaun explains how he worked with the video’s director, Melina Moustakas, in the past, and helped her find female models for “Pretty Hurts.”
“I made a joke to [Melina]. I said, ‘I will help you find models, only if I can be in [the video].'”
“I was dating somebody at the time, and we were both supposed to be in the video,” Ross explained. “We were supposed to be this hair dressing role, and it didn’t get filmed because they ended up filming overtime.”
“We ended up doing another film day, and they didn’t have a person to play the coach. I said, ‘I have a black turtleneck,’ and one of the production assistants…. I took his glasses, put on this black turtleneck that I had, and that’s how I got the role.”
Ross also opened up about slapping Beyoncé and roughing her up for certain scenes for “Pretty Hurts.”
Follow theGrio.com’s Entertainment Editor Chris Witherspoon on Twitter @WitherspoonC.
