InstagramDid Taylor Swift produce a music video or a mini-movie?
Before she debuts the Joseph Kahn-directed "Bad Blood" music video during the Billboard Music Awards on May 17, Swift has been teasing its celebrity cameos via social media. Most recently, the pop singer-songwriter posted character posters showing Kendrick Lamar as Welvin Da Great and Lena Dunham as Lucky Fiori. The "i" rapper and Girls actress join previously announced participants Hailee Steinfeld (The Trinity), Ellie Goulding (Destructa X), Gigi Hadid (Slay-Z), Hayley Williams (The Crimson Curse), Zendaya (Cut-Throat) and Lily Aldridge (Frostbyte). Swift, meanwhile, is playing a character named Catastrophe.
Swift has kept details regarding the music video's plot secret, though she did tweet Sunday, "Fun fact about #BadBloodMusicVideo: Each individual actor/actress chose their character's name and persona." Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss and Selena Gomez, for example, were all photographed on set in L.A. in mid-April.
The singer has no shortage of famous friends, and it's likely that many more celebrities will make guest appearances in the video. One person who likely won't pop up, though, is her rumored rival, Katy Perry.
When Swift was promoting her album 1989 last year, she hinted that "Bad Blood" was about the "Dark Horse" singer. "For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not," Swift told Rolling Stone. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?' Then last year, the other star crossed a line. She did something so horrible, I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. I'm surprisingly non-confrontational—you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward, and I don't like it."
Swift knew "Bad Blood" would get people talking.
"Sometimes the lines in a song are lines you wish you could text-message somebody in real life. I would just be constantly writing all these zingers, like, 'Burn. That would really get her.' And I know people are going to obsess over who it's about, because they think they have all my relationships mapped out. But there's a reason there are not any overt call-outs in that song," she said. "My intent was not to create some gossip-fest. I wanted people to apply it to a situation where they felt betrayed in their own lives."
Watch Live From the Red Carpet: The Billboard Music Awards Sunday at 6 p.m. on E!