When Taylor Swift’s new music video for The Man opens with an arrogant businessman strutting around his office, it’s not immediately clear who is playing “the man” in question.
But it’s later revealed that Swift herself is playing the arrogant, hot-tempered protagonist – with the end credits showing how the star was layered with make-up and heavy prosthetics.
As the credits roll, a series of stills show Taylor Swift undergoing a heavy make-up and prosthetic transformation.
Her hair is hidden under a bald cap before she’s given an entirely new jaw, nose and lips.
Dark eyebrows and eyelashes are matched with a groomed beard, and to top it off, she’s given quiffed brown hair and a business shirt and tie to complete the look.
Th video for The Man, which features on Swift’s latest album Lover, features a voice appearance at the end by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a fourth-wall breaking moment that shows Swift in her director’s chair.
When “the man” asks Swift for notes, she ironically delivers the type of infuriating advice women have no doubt heard from male directors countless times: “Could you try to be sexier? Maybe more likeable this time?”
The video features a number of references to men who have undermined Swift throughout her career.
Fans have speculated over whether some shots gesture at Swift’s longstanding feud with musician Kanye West in the video, who famously upstaged her at the 2009 MTV VMAs.
Eagle-eyed viewers drew comparisons between the arched hallway in Kanye West’s $60 million mansion and the artwork teasing the release of the video.
Meanwhile, there’s an apparent dig at her fight with agent Scooter Braun, who she has been publicly battling with since he purchased Big Machine Records for £237 million.
Big Machine Records owns the masters to many of Swift’s original songs, and she called the situation her “worst case scenario.”
In the video, the main character relieves himself against the wall of a subway station, on which the names of Swift’s albums are graffitied next to a poster that reads: “Missing, if found return to Taylor Swift”.
There’s also a sign that indicates a ban on scooters.
In the end credits of the video, one title card declares the clip and song are “owned by Taylor Swift.”
