Last week we told you that Dennis Quaid volunteered to star in Midland’s latest video for “Mr. Lonely. It turns out he was fully committed to the role, which made things a little challenging for bassist Cameron Duddy who co-directed the video with his brother. “Dennis Quaid wanted to do all his own stunts which is like, absurd, because I’m not going to be responsible for hurting Dennis Quaid on a free music video shoot. He ended up doing a lot of stuff that we didn’t want him to do. We didn’t smash a chair over his head but he took some serious blows. We did drag him across the bar.”
At one point Cameron had to draw the line when it came to the type of stunts he would allow Dennis to do. “We would not light his crotch on fire,” says Cam. “He wanted to do it. We were like, ‘Dude, I’m sorry we just can’t do it we don’t have the insurance policy for it.’”
Cameron reveals that at one point they even resorted to distraction to keep Dennis from putting himself in harm’s way by trying to do all his stunts. “He wanted to get thrown out the window. We were like, ‘No, actually, why don’t you go shoot this thing over here.’ We kind of had to fake him out and shoot two units to do certain things so he wouldn’t be around, because he would’ve just insisted on doing it. So, sorry Dennis, if you’re listening to this, that we tricked you into that kind of stuff.”
Thankfully, the video for “Mr. Lonely” was made without injury. And Cameron says, “All told, it was a fantastic video, super fun to work on. Dennis Quaid over delivered. It’s something that we’re all very proud of.”
“Mr. Lonely” will be featured on Midland’s new album, Let It Roll, which is being released on August 23rd.
Midland – Dennis Quaid did own stunts :46
Cameron Duddy – “Dennis Quaid wanted to do all his own stunts which is like, absurd, because I’m not going to be responsible for hurting Dennis Quaid on a free music video shoot. He ended up doing a lot of stuff that we didn’t want him to do. We didn’t smash a chair over his head but he took some serious blows. We did drag him across the bar. We would not light his crotch on fire. He wanted to do it. We were like, ‘Dude, I’m sorry we just can’t do it we don’t have the insurance policy for it.’ He wanted to get thrown out the window. We were like, ‘No, actually, why don’t you go shoot this thing over here.’ We kind of had to fake him out and shoot two units to do certain things so he wouldn’t be around, because he would’ve just insisted on doing it. So, sorry Dennis, if you’re listening to this, that we tricked you into that kind of stuff. But all told it was a fantastic video, super fun to work on. Dennis Quaid over delivered. It’s something that we’re all very proud of.”