Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley Take Us Behind the Scenes of “Tiny Moves”

The music video for “Tiny Moves” by Bleachers is a tear-jerker. Filmed a few weeks before the band’s front man, Jack Antonoff, wed the actor and trained ballerina Margaret Qualley, the video reads like a love letter. Choreographed and co-directed by Qualley, who also stars in the video, it opens with the actress in a white dress (perhaps the same one referenced by Antonoff’s frequent collaborator, Lana Del Rey?), walking in front of a New York City skyline and into headlights before the camera pans to Antonoff, gazing with loving adoration from the hood of his car. As it turned out, that’s pretty much how things proceeded on the set of the late-night shoot, during which Antonoff was snacking on hash browns and trying his best to be still. “I had absolutely nothing to do besides sit in a car,” Antonoff told us when he and Qualley got on Zoom to interview one another. “I was watching you the whole video and just being like, I can’t believe she’s doing this.”  The song and video, co-directed by Alex Lockett, serves as the third single off the upcoming self-titled Bleachers album, which comes out on March 8th, just a few days after Qualley’s next big project, the Ethan Coen-directed feature Drive-Away Dolls, hits theaters. Last week, the newlyweds grilled each other about gua shas, getting stoned, and their favorite Adam Sandler movies.

MARGARET QUALLEY: Hi, sweetie.

JACK ANTONOFF: Hi, sweetie. How are you? This is the interview. This isn’t exactly what—

QUALLEY: Terrifying.

ANTONOFF: Okay, Margaret. Is this the first thing you’ve directed?

QUALLEY: Yeah.

ANTONOFF: Oh, really? I don’t know. You’ve never told me, before this I don’t have memories of you talking about directing a lot.

QUALLEY: I don’t have much directorial ambition. I think I have more interest in choreographing things.

ANTONOFF: And do you feel like there’ll come a time in your life when you’ll choreograph all the time, or does it have to be you moving?

QUALLEY: I’d like to do it for other people. That would be fun. Yeah. A lot of people like being multi-hyphenates, actor, producer, director, blah, blah, blah. I like the term actress the most.

ANTONOFF: I like the word actress. It reminds me of the word watercress.

QUALLEY: What?

ANTONOFF: You know, like the salad.

QUALLEY: Yes, I can hear that.

ANTONOFF: Do you think people know that you spend most of your time in a room with a red infrared light pointed at your face stretching?

QUALLEY: [Laughs] Excuse me.

ANTONOFF: That’s a question. Do you think most people would know that you spend most of your time in a room with an infrared light pointed at your face stretching?

QUALLEY: [Laughs] No.

ANTONOFF: So take me back, because I actually don’t even fully remember. I remember I had this song and we were in New Orleans—

QUALLEY: I wanted to make up a dance to one of your songs.

ANTONOFF: But what happened first? At what point did you start moving your body to the song?

QUALLEY: You let me listen to all the songs and I kind of tried them all out, then I felt like “Tiny Moves,”I don’t know. I liked dancing to it. And then I started coming up with some choreography. We were in Jersey at the beach, remember?

ANTONOFF: I remember at one point we were in Jersey and you were going to that local Pilates studio after hours to use the space as a dance studio.

QUALLEY: Yeah. But before that, I actually started making it up on the beach outside, then that became too embarrassing. So then I moved to the Pilates studio.

ANTONOFF: Yes. Can you tell us about the process of choreographing the entire music video? Because I can’t imagine the amount of work that went in.

QUALLEY: Oh, you’re kidding.

ANTONOFF: I can’t. I don’t know how you do what you do. It’s so slow.

QUALLEY: This whole process was really slow. Also, I didn’t have anything else that I had to do, so I spent a lot of time doing this, and basically I came up with some things I liked and just built on it and kept going and going and finding it.

ANTONOFF: There was one version where I think you wanted me to kind of shimmy towards you and start dancing. I was very anxious about that and I’m happy we didn’t do it. And it’s not because I’m not a great dancer, it’s just the kind of dancing you’re doing is so highbrow.

MARGARET QUALLEY :It’s performative.

ANTONOFF: Well, it’s wonderful. I don’t think I could choreograph anything.

QUALLEY: I think you could for sure. Our favorite reference was that snake in the grass Bob Fosse desert video, which is pretty intentional drama.

ANTONOFF: You’ve mentioned that if you were to do this again, the next one would be with a horse.

QUALLEY: Yeah, I want to do it with a horse. I just got a horse.

ANTONOFF: Can you explain how you would do a dance video with a horse?

QUALLEY: Okay, so I just got a two-year-old horse and I’m slowly training him. His name’s Big. I absolutely love him. He is out in New Jersey right now, just having a sweet little time.

ANTONOFF: What does that look like?

QUALLEY: I’m figuring it out. I’m building a relationship with this horse and hopefully we can come up with a little dance together.

ANTONOFF: How much can you get a horse to dance?

QUALLEY: I don’t know yet. Horse trainers can do really amazing things.

ANTONOFF: Is it you and the horse and everyone’s got their feet on the ground dancing together or are you on the horse dancing?

QUALLEY: It depends how quickly you make your next album.

ANTONOFF: Is there a type of music that you think would work for this, because this could really dictate everything.

QUALLEY: No, I just think that I’ll know when I hear it.

ANTONOFF: Great.

QUALLEY: Okay. What are some questions I should ask you?

ANTONOFF: “How do you do it at night, man?” We shot this video all night.

QUALLEY: It’s a nightmare. It’s the worst part of my job. You’ve been there for me while I’m wailing and exhausted.

ANTONOFF: I had absolutely nothing to do besides sit in a car. I was watching you the whole video and just being like, “I can’t believe she’s doing this.” I can literally barely sit in the car. Staying up all night is so untenable to me that I was watching you and I just couldn’t believe you were telling everyone what to do and you were dancing beautifully and it was incredible. And I guess my question is, what gives? Must there be night shoots?

QUALLEY: Well, must there be night scenes? Yes, I suppose.

ANTONOFF: I was just sitting in the car. It’s probably normal to you, but for me it’s weird. Film sets serve the food based on when you start shooting.

QUALLEY: It’s a nightmare. I don’t know why they do that.

ANTONOFF: So we had breakfast at 11:00 PM.

QUALLEY: Or there’s this performative thing of, you get there at 7:00 PM and your day’s beginning and everyone on the crew says “good morning.” And you’re kind of like, it’s not morning.

ANTONOFF: You know how when you eat a hash brown, like a McDonald’s style hash brown, and it’s so oily that you just feel like the hash brown.

QUALLEY: Yeah.

ANTONOFF: I was just eating them all night. And then, it was like 5:00 AM. It was right at that point where everything’s great and then all of a sudden the sun’s starting to come up. And I don’t remember if the end of the video was meant to be that bright. I think it’s perfect. But I remember I was just eating all these hash browns and everyone was screaming “Go, go, go, we’re not getting the coverage.” It was just wild and everyone was yelling and trying to get the shot. And we were also drinking. And we were high. You were high. Were you high?

QUALLEY: Yes.

ANTONOFF: Is that bad to remark on?

QUALLEY: I don’t know. I’ve never remarked on that publicly. But it was cold and I needed to dance and stay loose and warm.

ANTONOFF: The shoot was beautiful and romantic, but there was also just like, people were drunk, high, and chasing, whatever the opposite of chasing the sun is. Chasing the night, holding on to the night.

QUALLEY: Chasing sunlight. 

ANTONOFF: Are you high now?

QUALLEY: No, I’m not high now. I’m not!

ANTONOFF: It’s hard to tell when you’re high. This happens a lot of days with us where I’ll say, “Did you just smoke?” Because you look at me and I can’t tell the difference. You’re just always kind of smiling, right?

QUALLEY: [Laughs] Yeah.

ANTONOFF: Margaret, do you want to comment on the actor’s strike?

QUALLEY: Jack.

ANTONOFF: Sorry. That was a joke. Cut that. I’m just going to say things.

QUALLEY: Okay.

ANTONOFF: You gave me one of those things that you rub on your face.

QUALLEY: Gua Sha.

ANTONOFF: And I bruised my cheek.

QUALLEY: Jack loves Gua Sha. Jack Gua Sha’s to the bone.

ANTONOFF: I’ve never looked better and I’m happy with that. Another friend told us that we should just be just dunking our heads in ice water, which is how Paul Newman did it for 20 years. That was less of a question. Okay, moving on, this ties into this video. Why have you fallen in love with New Jersey and is this a bit or are you really here to stay?

QUALLEY: This is not a bit and I hope that one day you love it as much as I do.

ANTONOFF: So you have no complicated feelings. You’re just in?

QUALLEY: I’m just in. I mean, I am the most in. I only want to be in New Jersey.

ANTONOFF: So weird. Just because so many people love New York City and everyone I’ve met, I’d be like, “Oh, do you want to go to New Jersey?” And they would literally laugh.

QUALLEY: Well, I grew up in farms and suburbs. And I’m just like, now I don’t feel like I have to be in the city. Also, I fell in love. I get to move to New Jersey. You know what I mean? I think, until you find your person, you’re looking for your person. I found my person. I’m done. I want to be in New Jersey.

ANTONOFF: Can you tell me your favorite part of New Jersey?

QUALLEY: Your shoulders drop just immediately. It’s a little bit slower. You talk about things. You have an interaction everywhere. It’s more small town. I think it’s more human.

ANTONOFF: In the video, we’re in Jersey and you see the skyline right behind us. That’s so intensely resonant for me.

QUALLEY: I have been to every Bleacher show and I’ve heard every interview of yours and [I like] the idea of the New York City sky being this distant thing that you’re longing for. It just felt like the obvious choice.

ANTONOFF: Okay. Favorite Adam Sandler movie?

QUALLEY: It’s really hard. I’m probably going to say Happy Gilmore. I’m not going to choose.

ANTONOFF: That’s okay. I love Punch-Drunk Love and all those things. It’s brilliant. Uncut Gems is great, but there’s a really special section of hell for people who think that that is Adam Sandler’s greatest work.

QUALLEY: I mean, if you want to sit here and debate what’s better, The Wedding Singer or Big Daddy, I’m down for that conversation.

ANTONOFF: Wedding Singer.

QUALLEY: Yeah, it is better. But Big Daddy is fantastic.

ANTONOFF: What’s your favorite unrecognized Adam Sandler movie? I know what mine is. I think Mr. Deeds is the shit.

QUALLEY: Yeah. Mr. Deeds is the shit.

ANTONOFF: Oh, no, I didn’t think you were going to say Mr. Deeds! I thought you were going to say, what’s the one where he plays—

QUALLEY: A woman?

ANTONOFF: Oh, Jack and Jill.

QUALLEY: I thought you were going to say Jack and Jill.

ANTONOFF: It makes fucking Pink Flamingos look like Herbie: Fully Loaded. This thing is camp. It is just wild. It’s surreal and it’s insane. And I just think he’s the best.

QUALLEY: I think, on record, Anger Management.

ANTONOFF: Oh yeah, you have that Anger Management hat.

QUALLEY: I do love Anger Management.

ANTONOFF: Do you find that people are always trying to get you to dance in things you make?

QUALLEY: Yeah, but I don’t hate it.

ANTONOFF: So you’re dancing in this video, but you really had this showstoppers NASCAR dance upbringing where you would go to competitions your entire childhood.

QUALLEY: Oh, yeah.

ANTONOFF: What’s the name of that style?

QUALLEY: The best reference for people is So You Think You Can Dance dancing. Or Dance Moms dancing. I know the teacher from that show, she taught me class when I was young.

ANTONOFF: One time I was on tour and there was a dance competition  in this hotel I was staying at and I’ve never seen that many people in my life, just anywhere.

QUALLEY: It’s like, lots of 11, 12, 13-year-old girls wearing rhinestone bras, fishnet tights, little Padini raised jazz shoes, and poofs in their hair. Bleached blonde, false eyelashes, shimmery eye makeup.

ANTONOFF: And you did all of this growing up?

QUALLEY: I did. I was deeply embarrassed because, well, you couldn’t really make a career out of dance competition dancing.

ANTONOFF: Yeah, what’s that…?

QUALLEY: I think the best version of that is either going to So You Think You Can Dance and winning that, then getting notoriety as a teacher, traveling with a dance competition to teach, or being a background dancer for Beyonce. That kind of thing would be amazing.

ANTONOFF: If So You Think You Can Dance calls, do you go?

QUALLEY: They don’t call. You show up. You know what I mean?

ANTONOFF:  What do you mean?

QUALLEY: It was like American Idol.

ANTONOFF: Oh, it’s not like Dancing With the Stars?

QUALLEY: No, it’s way more serious. This is the most nerve-wracking conversation I’ve had with Jack since we first met. I’m sweating.

ANTONOFF: You’re really in motion. Did we cover anything besides just talking to each other?

QUALLEY: I’m sorry I didn’t ask any questions. Jack asked me everything.

———

Creative Direction: Patricia Villirillo @future

Photography:Alex Lockett 

Styling: Patricia Villirillo @future

Hair stylist: Kevin Ryan @art commerce

Make up artist: Tyron Macchausen @ thewallgroup

Photo assistants Isaac Schell and Johnny de Guzman 

Stylist Assistants Nelima Odhiambo and Teresa Magalhaels

Production Good Company 

Label Dirty Hit

 

Jack wears:

Aviator vintage leather jacket from his own personal archive

T-shirt and trousers from his own personal archive 

Shoes by Zeha Berlin

Glasses by Gucci 

 

Margaret wears:

1930’s vintage dress from her personal archive 

all jewellery by Slim Barrett

socks by Woldorf

vintage lace up shoes by Chanel