A model and actor who appeared in the music video for Robin Thicke’s controversial 2013 smash “Blurred Lines” is addressing the various reasons she’s tried to distance herself from the project in the decade since its release.
Elle Evans spoke at length about her “Blurred Lines” experience in an interview with Bustle published Wednesday. In the chat, she touched on her co-star Emily Ratajkowski’s claim that Thicke groped her during the shoot.
Though Evans said she didn’t see any misconduct on Thicke’s behalf firsthand, she nonetheless recalled the tone changing on the “Blurred Lines” set after the singer’s one-on-one scenes with Ratajkowski were completed.
“All the stuff with Emily and Robin there together, that was a closed set. So they had no one else watching,” she said. “But what I remember is that, toward the end of the shoot, Emily did leave very abruptly. There was kind of a bit of a scramble among the production team, like, ‘What are we gonna do? How do we shoot the rest of the video without her?’”
She went on to note, “I was told that she had a flight to catch.”
Watch the “Blurred Lines” video below.
Ratajkowski first went public with her allegations against Thicke in her 2021 memoir, “My Body.”
According to an excerpt of the book that appeared in the U.K. publication Sunday Times, Ratajkowski claimed that Thicke inappropriately touched her breasts while filming the video.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” she wrote. “I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [The director, Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, ‘Are you okay?’”
Martel, who has also directed videos by Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey, backed Ratajkowski’s allegations. She told the Sunday Times in 2021 that Thicke had been drinking during the shoot and, later, “sheepishly apologized” for his actions.
“I don’t think he would have done this had he been sober,” she added.
To date, Thicke has never addressed Ratajkowski’s allegations. HuffPost reached out to the singer’s representative seeking comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Despite her less-than-favorable “Blurred Lines” experience, Evans has maintained a connection with the music industry. In 2019, she married Muse frontman Matt Bellamy. She also appeared in Beyoncé’s “Haunted” and “Superpower” videos.
Those 2014 projects, she said, involved “some of the best shoots I’ve been in just as far as production.”
“Robin Thicke and Pharrell and T.I. are big in the industry, but they’re not on Beyoncé’s level. I mean, Robin Thicke is not even close,” she told Bustle. “Like it’s a completely different category.”