YouTubeJustin Bieber made "One Less Lonely Girl" out of Cailin Russo when he cast her to play his love interest in "All That Matters," which premiered on Vevo on Monday, Dec. 2. The 19-year-old model had no idea whose music video she was auditioning for, let alone that she would be the only girl cast. When she arrived on set, she was equally clueless as to what would be expected of her.
"I didn't know what was going to happen because the song is super romantic, and since the shoot was set up a certain way, I didn't even know if we would be shooting together," she tells Cosmopolitan. "But the first take was us kissing!"
"In the beginning it was kind of weird because I had never kissed anyone on set that passionately or that famous," she recalls. "I wasn't a super fan of his before I did this and I just kept thinking to myself that people would kill to do this."
As one might imagine, Russo got over her nerves pretty quickly. And yes, the Biebs is a good kisser.
"Kissing him was nice—I got butterflies and I do still to this day," she says. "After the shoot wrapped it felt so surreal, I even got a speeding ticket after the shoot because I was on such a high. I guess you could say I wouldn't mind doing it again."
Russo adds that Bieber, 19, "smelled really nice" and had "really fresh breath" all day. Phew!
"I thought they made me look way classy and not trashy at all, and I was happy with how Justin and I interacted," she says. "It didn't come out like we were shoving our tongues in each other's mouth or anything weird like that at all."
In between takes, Bieber and Russo hung out on the singer's tour bus and listened to his new music.
Being hired to rub up on Bieber has its downsides, however. "I've gotten several death threats—none like, 'I'm going to find you and kill you,' but I've received ones that say, 'Die,' and 'Kill yourself.' People seriously have no boundaries with social media," she says. "I was just doing my job. But there are lot of people defending me, too, which is nice. I've definitely gained some fans from this all."
Russo also says it's "ridiculous" that fans are comparing her to Bieber's ex-girlfriend, Selena Gomez.
"Selena is a superstar and I'm just a girl in a video. She's his ex and I'm sure they still have feelings for each other." Russo believes the "Stars Dance" singer is mad about the music video, though Gomez has not publicly comented on "All That Matters."
"She posted a picture on Instagram that said, 'I thought he only liked the Latina category. Smh... #nomakeup #hatewhengirlssaythat.' It was clearly directed at him with me in the video, but like I said, I was just doing my job."
Russo and Bieber continue to text and FaceTime, but they aren't seeing each other romantically. "I had a boyfriend up until the video and the drop," she tells Cosmopolitan. "We broke up for about a week after, but we're back together...for now."