Director Diane Martel Discusses Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” Video

Since the release of the visuals for “We Can’t Stop”, Miley Cyrus has been receiving a lot of criticism for the shocking video. Many were stunned by the random scenes, but director Diane Martel says they were just making a statement.

“We set out to make something we would love and we did!” said Martel in an email to MTV News. “I don’t see this video as shocking, it’s creative!” The video had many scenes of finger cutting, french fry skulls, furry teddy bear backpacks, and infamous Miley twerking. Martel explains that each scene was carefully selected by her creative team and came from blogs and pop artists to pay homage to the creativity Cyrus is intertwining in her new music.

Miley also played a huge role in deciding the scenes added in the vid. “We spoke a lot and sent photos back and forth; we spoke about her love of her close friends,” wrote Martel. “She is not a career-crazed kid. Her music is intensely important to her but so is her social life; [so] we spoke about the joy of tight friendships. To me, she is showing us, the audience, her playful, beautiful self, very freely. [It’s] a music video version of what it must be like to bug out and act crazy with her real life.”

Martel, who has worked with Beyonce and Nicki Minaj calls Cyrus her hero. “She is very much alive in a way I find very beautiful. She is living in the moment and this is inspiring.

Shanika Simmons