Rihanna's 'Man Down' Music Video Director Defends Controversial Violence (Exclusive)

The director of Rihanna’s controversial new video “Man Down” isn’t apologizing for depicting the singer shooting a man who sexually assaults her.

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“It’s doing exactly what Rihanna and I hoped it would do, which is shine a light on the very dark subject matter,” Anthony Mandler tells THR in his first interview since watchdog groups called for the clip to be banned from BET. 

After debuting last week, the clip for the reggae-infused pop song has been viewed on YouTube more than 12 million times, with many taking sides on whether it promotes violence or addresses the issue of abuse against women.
 
Mandler, 38, describes the outrage as “knee-jerk” and says it’s been too long since videos like Aerosmith’s “Janie’s Got a Gun” and Soul Asylum’s “Runaway Train” routinely tackled social issues.
 
“This medium used to be a great medium of messages,” says Mandler, a veteran video director (Jay-Z's "Run This Town," The Killers' "When We Were Young," Drake's "Find Your Love" ) who is also attached to helm the Zac Efron vehicle Die in a Gunfight for MRC and a Dracula origin story at Summit. “I grew up in the era of Madonna releasing videos and sparking controversy. I think most people are wasting this medium.”

Watching the video, some might wonder the fuss is all about it. It’s not bloody or gory, and the assault is left to the imagination. Mandler says he and Rihanna purposely held back so people wouldn’t overreact.

“The fact that there’s an argument to ban this because this will make girls retaliate from abuse with murder is skipping over the point,” he says. “We obviously have a huge issue with abuse to deal with as a country.”

Rihanna - Man Down by VEVO

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com