Olivia Rodrigo's '4 Christmas' BTS: Ben Marshall's axe mishap and Cynthia Nixon
Olivia Rodrigo is taking fans behind the scenes of her first holiday single. On Wednesday (Nov. 11), the singer posted making-of footage from the "Take Me Home (4 Christmas)" music video, giving a look at how the cozy family montage with costars Ben Marshall and Cynthia Nixon actually came to life.
"We are in beautiful upstate New York," she reveals in the clip. "It's absolutely gorgeous out. We're in this awesome house." The footage captures Rodrigo seemingly meeting Saturday Night Live's Marshall for the first time, then openly fangirling over the Sex and the City and Gilded Age star between takes. "I'm over the moon," the Grammy winner tells Nixon. "I just can't believe it."
Not every take went smoothly. Marshall, who plays Rodrigo's boyfriend in the video, attacks his wood-chopping scene a little too convincingly, which prompts the crew to keep asking if he's okay. "Yeah, I'm acting!" he shoots back with a laugh.
The video itself plays as a warm daydream of family togetherness, and the BTS clip undercuts it with the real sound of a pop star and a comedian cracking up between setups. Fans get to watch Rodrigo fangirl, Marshall pretend to chop wood for the fire, and Nixon do her startled double-take, all in one short making-of.
A picture-perfect fantasy that wobbles
The song dropped Nov. 5 with its video and marks Rodrigo's first holiday release. It traces her daydreaming about coming home with her boyfriend to spend Christmas with his family, imagining herself as the picture-perfect daughter-in-law in everyone else's eyes. The fantasy does not hold up: the boyfriend's younger sister colors all over Rodrigo's face during makeovers, and Nixon at one point walks in on the singer in her underwear.
The BTS clip shows both sequences being filmed, including the Gilded Age actress's startled gasp when she finds Rodrigo without all of her clothes on. The festive track follows Rodrigo's third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, which just earned a fourth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.