Culture

Trans actor Laith Ashley thanks Taylor Swift for Lavender Haze music video cameo: “Still at a loss for words”

By Conor Clark

27th January 2023

Taylor Swift has finally released the highly anticipated music video for Lavender Haze, the second single from her latest album Midnights.

Clips from it were first previewed in the album’s visual trailer, with fans desperately waiting for its announcement ever since then.

In the video, which Swift wrote and directed, the star gets up from her bed where her partner, portrayed by trans activist and actor Laith Ashley, lies asleep.

A lavender-coloured mist begins to appear from underneath the bed before filling the entire room, with the camera then switching to Swift sitting on a sofa as she watches a weather channel.

After crawling across the floor, she parts the television screen like curtains to reveal fish swimming through space and purple clouds.

Once she has taken a bath in a purple-hued pool, Swift attends a party with Ashley where they are once again engulfed by the lavender mist.

The music video for Lavender Haze ends with the Look What You Made Me Do singer back in the bedroom, where she pushes the walls down and is left on a cloud surrounded by the floating fish from the TV.

“I am so grateful”

“The Lavender Haze video is out now,” Swift wrote on Twitter shortly after its release. “There is lots of lavender. There is lots of haze. There is my incredible costar @laith_ashley who I absolutely adored working with.”

She continued: “This was the first video I wrote out of the 3 that have been released, and this one really helped me conceptualize the world and mood of Midnights, like a sultry sleepless 70’s fever dream. Hope you like it.”

Ashley took to Twitter to thank Swift for allowing him to be part of the video.

“Thank you so much @taylorswift13 for allowing me to play a small part in your story,” he wrote on 27 January. “You are brilliant and this is an experience I will never forget.”

READ MORE: Taylor Swift announces The Eras Tour featuring array of LGBTQ+ acts

He added that he was “still at a loss for words” and still trying to “gather” himself.

“I am so grateful,” he continued. “Thank you @taylorswift13.”

The lyrics of Lavender Haze describe the public scrutiny Swift faces in her romantic relationships.

“Like, if you were in the lavender haze, then that meant that you were in that all-encompassing love glow – and I thought that was really beautiful,” she previously said of the track. “And I guess, theoretically, when you’re in the Lavender Haze you’ll do anything to stay there and not let people bring you down off of that cloud.”

Lavender Haze earned more than 16.4 million plays on Spotify in its first 24 hours

The track is already a global smash hit, having debuted and peaked at number two and three in the US and UK, respectively, upon the release of Midnights.

It earned more than 16.4 million plays in its first 24 hours on Spotify globally, becoming the second biggest opening day for a song in the platform’s history, only behind Anti-Hero – the album’s lead single.

READ MORE: Phoebe Bridgers “got teary” recording collaboration with Taylor Swift

That same week, Swift became the first artist to simultaneously occupy the top 10 spots of the US Billboard Hot 100, a feat that automatically made Midnights the first album in history to contain 10 top-10 songs.

You can watch the Lavender Haze music video below or by clicking here.