Justin Timberlake Takes a Drag in ‘TKO’
Looks like filming Justin Timberlake‘s new video for “T.K.O.” was a real drag – literally. There he is, a third of the way through the seven-minute clip, tethered to the back of Riley Keough’s pickup while she goes for a nighttime joyride down a dirt road.
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Timberlake, for his part, spends some of the time he’s being dragged across gravel with his arms outstretched in a Christ-like pose. Although it looks like Keough (The Runaways, Magic Mike) and Timberlake reconcile about halfway through when she straddles him seductively, it doesn’t last long: soon she’s yelling at him in the kitchen and pounding on his chest while he sings, “This ain’t the girl I used to know.”
The song comes from Timberlake’s latest album, The 20/20 Experience: 2 of 2. The singer co-wrote the treatment for the video with its director, Ryan Reichenfeld, who has previously made clips for Wild Nothing and Pusha T. The duo deserves credit for not taking the easy route and filming a boxing-related clip (despite some ring chimes midway through) for the track, which was co-produced by Timberlake, Timbaland and J-Roc.