Como, Hitchcock, Heartbreak: On the Making of the Video for Gwen Stefani’s ‘Cool’
That’s how director Sophie Muller began her two-page treatment for the music video for Gwen Stefani’s song “Cool,” which premiered on MTV 20 years ago this week, on June 30, 2005. The fourth single from her solo debut, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., it was warmly received and charted well but was dwarfed by the album’s aughts-defining hits like “Hollaback Girl” and “Rich Girl.” Those were dance-floor bangers whose glossy videos drove home her Harajuku–girls–meets–Vivienne Westwood aesthetic at full throttle. “Cool,” meanwhile, was a synthy, mid-tempo ballad about finding peace with an ex years later (“After all that we’ve been through, I know we’re cool”).Written by Stefani and Dallas Austin, it was clear at the time that the song was about Tony Kanal, her former lover and No Doubt bandmate with whom she remained close, bound by creative duty and deep admiration. Muller had won an MTV Video Music Award for directing the video for that band’s 1996 hit “Don’t Speak,” another Stefani-Kanal breakup ballad, making her the obvious choice to helm “Cool.”She’s an amazing video actress. My proof is always this shot in “Don’t Speak,” where she’s holding an orange as she’s being photographed. She sees the band looking at her, pissed off, and she’s smiling for the photographer before her face falls, and you see that she feels terrible and guilty. That close-up of her face is really subtle, and that was what I based the whole concept of the “Cool” video on: her ability to do looks.Director Sophie Muller—who also helmed the visual for No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak”—shares her memories, images, and even storyboards from one of the great music videos of the aughts with Vogue, 20 years later.
