How Tove Lo Fought Back Against Self-Hate in the Bruising, Beautiful Video for ‘Grapefruit’

It’s a place we all know, but no two people perceive it the same way. It’s the vault in which we store our most pernicious doubts, and the place where we never truly feel comfortable. Somewhere, in some dark corner of our minds, is a room where our anxieties live. 

That room is the subject of ‘Grapefruit’, a powerful new song - and undeniable earworm - from the Swedish singer/songwriter Tove Lo. In a pulsating ode to fighting against self-doubt, the singer confronts her own anxieties surrounding body image in a way that feels both authentic and unique. 

In order to bring the song and its throbbing embodiment of self-doubt to life, Tove’s team enlisted the help of Imposter’s Lisette Donkersloot. Lisette’s vision brought about the unsettling and unforgettable ‘skin room’, in which we see the music video’s star brawl - not always successfully - against her inner demons. The result is a video that leaves a mark, in more ways than one. 

To go behind the scenes of the shoot, LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to Lisette… 

LBB> Lisette, what kind of ideas came to you when you first heard the song and how closely do they resemble the finished video? 

Lisette> As soon as I heard the song, I instantly fell in love with it. No vivid ideas came to me instantly, but I knew it had to involve dancing as the song made me move and dance automatically. 

I played the song on repeat for three days straight. On the first day, as I was riding the subway, the fully-formed idea came to me. I spent the following two days doubting myself and trying to come up with something else as I thought it might be too weird or undoable, but ultimately I knew this was the concept to go with. So yeah, my first idea is pretty much exactly what the video ended up being.

Above: A behind-the-scenes video charts the construction and inspiration behind the sets. 

LBB> There's a fascinating connection between the two locations we see in the video. Can you tell us a little more about the relationship between the apartment and the 'skin room’? 

Lisette> The song, at least to me, illustrates Tove participating in a mental fight with herself. I wanted the apartment to resemble reality, but stripped down from anything decorative or joyful. It had to be literally empty, and focused entirely on her compulsive self-hating thoughts.

As for the skin room, it’s a surreal place that resembles what I like to call her 'inner room of self-destruction’. It’s a magnified depiction of everything Tove doubts about herself and her body. In the video we basically see ‘Outer Tove’ (in the apartment) trying to break down her inner self within the skin room - reflecting her internal conflict.

Above: Lisette on-set - photo credit Kenny Laubbacher.

LBB> The marks left in the skin room appear to be permanent. Where did that idea come from, and how did you settle on the right way to visualise it? 

Lisette> The song itself is about dealing with a distorted body image. On the one hand you are longing to unsee your ‘flawed self’, but at the same time, it’s the only thing you can see and it becomes this monstrously large thing inside your mind. 

As a result, the idea of having this skin room getting actually bruised and scratched by Tove’s own movements was easily made. 

With that idea being so surreal and conceptual, it was a challenge to find the right way to visualise it since we didn’t have all the time and money in the world. But I knew right away it had to become a close collaboration between production design, special effects, makeup (as I wanted to do as much as possible in-camera) and visual effects.

LBB> Although the skin room feels very explicitly like a prison, there's also a sense of claustrophobia and being trapped in the apartment. Was that intentional, and how did you capture that on-screen if so? 

Lisette> That was very intentional. It felt necessary and in line with the concept that this skin room needed to be a dark place, with no doors or exits. A place where you don’t want to be, and at the same time, can’t escape from. 

For the set I got very inspired by padded asylum rooms. So we created a set which had four walls and a ceiling. The fourth wall was removable, but for most of the takes we put that one in so it was just Tove and a camera inside, which really helped in creating this claustrophobic feel. 

Photo credit: Kenny Laubbacher. 

LBB> Tove Lo's performance here is incredible. What was it like working with her, and what was your process for facilitating her? 

Lisette> Tove is really a super trooper. I can’t take credit for how outstanding her performance is here, as she really nailed each and every take and went all-in from beginning to end. 

Performing in the skin room within the claustrophobic four walls was quite intense for her, as the oxygen would leave the room quickly. 

Working with her was really a great experience. She and her team are - besides all being very talented individuals - extremely collaborative and open to ideas. Since she had to learn almost two full sets of choreography for the entire song we, especially Tove and her choreographer Toogie, really put in a lot of extra time and effort to get that right. 

LBB> What was the most difficult challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it? 

Lisette> The most challenging thing was shooting the whole thing in one day. The skin room especially was really time-consuming, with all of the resetting and taking the wall in and out frequently.

Applying the SFX bruises onto the floor and walls also took a lot of time in between takes. But you just have to roll with it and know which shots you really need and which ones are just nice to have (and can therefore be sacrificed).

Photo credit: Kenny Laubbacher.

LBB> If you had your time again, is there anything you would do differently? 

Lisette> There’s always room for improvement, but I wouldn’t do much differently. With the lessons from this shoot, we would probably have divided the time in  the skin room a little differently. And I did want to add more of Tove’s tattoos inside the skin room, but we couldn’t use most of them due to copyright issues. 

Oh, and I would have done more shots where the ceiling was visible, as we had this fully realised cube-shaped ceiling with a soft light in the middle, but due to lack of time we didn’t shoot as many super wide shots as anticipated. So in the edit I realised you don’t really get a full scope of the actual set as much as I’d wished. 

LBB> Finally, the song itself has been on repeat in my head since I first watched the video. Do you have any tips for getting it out? 

Lisette> Haha, sorry - I don’t. But isn’t this just the best song to have on repeat in your head? It’s stuck in my mind ever since the first day I heard it, which is over three months now. So be prepared!