okay. so we are going to paint a picture for you.
imagine this....
you wake up and get an email from nicki minaj. her music video for "super freaky girl". you've been waiting for this music video to drop for a while - or at least someone in your family or your friend has - and you are excited to watch it.
and then, we you click on the link to view it for the first time, you read the title say "alexander ludwig as ken"
okay....
it went away fast. maybe it didn't say that?? yeah
but then you see this!! ➡➡➡➡➡➡➡➡➡➡➡➡➡
and you're like, "no!! no, that's definitely alex!!"
PAUSE!! (also end imagination time)
hit the space bar. we don't know about you, but alexander ludwig is one of those celebrities that unintentionally follows us in our life. ever since we watched him in his role as cato in hunger games like a billion times (because that film was a late-middle school staple for us), and we saw his mental break at the end - you know, the (spoiler) "i can kill him" one where he has peeta at the arms of whatever weapon is in his hands - we've been mildly obsessed with him. to clarify, this isn't a crushing-obsession. this isn't even a sky ferreira obsession. this is just the kind of obsession where you swear you saw him at a local pie shop and won't shut up about it. this is also the kind of obsession that makes your jaw drop when you realize that he is casted as ken in nicki's "super freaky girl" music video.
our first thought upon resuming was how did he get this role? like, did nicki choose him herself or did he go about a regular audition process. if so, what was that like?? "hi, i'm alexander ludwig and i'm trying out for "super freaky girl""?? FOR REAL!! we're sitting down to watch a nicki music video, right?!
for the music video itself, we were happy to see nicki re-establishing her barbie roots. we, ourselves, would say that we have been on the barbiecore bandwagon since birth, because our love for the doll and brand has never diminished, and we dare say we are the ogs of it. we thoroughly take the brand's surveys, stock up on their latest products, and have our very own metroplex of dolls that we still play with 'til this day!! call it childish, but, baby, we've been rockin' babriecore before you knew it was a thing. you can even check out our very own instagram page for it, where we post our barbies' and kens' profile pictures that they get updated EVERY year - if not every month. you many be saying that those are two very different statements, but if you owned a barbie collection full of 300+ dolls, you'd understand what we mean. anyway, that's all to say that we love getting to see barbie nicki, even if you call her the og barbiecore queen instead of us.
apart from the barbie aspect of the video, we had some hold ups. one major one being mr. ken. like, seriously?? that was alexander ludwig!! it's not to say that he wasn't a good ken, but every time the video cut back to him weirdly stroking nicki's leg, we were interrupted. especially on top of whatever his serious, *sexy?* face was. AND let's not forget the part where he (spoiler) puts someone else's undees (underwear) in his mouth. we say "someone else's", because there is no way that nicki was wearing them under her bikini shorts and took them off. the physics of that part in the music video can not be logistical. but on a separate note, ew. the stuff actors get paid to do sometimes....absolutely baffled.
we do get a brief reprieve from ken with a dance number, however it is interspliced with ken driving barbie's car and hitting people, so that took some brain power to process as well. but props to nicki for the eco-friendly windmills in the back!! we see you, girl!! all in all, this video had us questioning whether or not they were dating. heads up, they are not. and even though alexander wasn't at the vmas, we were slightly glad that he was in the music video instead of some random, body oiled, backup dancing model. it may take us some getting used to before we go and watch this video again, but, hey, nicki says it in the song she can’t f*ck a regular guy....