Olivia Rodrigo Reveals That She Didn’t Use Real Ice Cream For ‘Deja Vu’ Music Video
Olivia Rodrigo released the music video for her second single, “deja vu,” on April 1. The music video showed the Disney+ singer driving on the California coast and eating strawberry ice cream. At least, that’s what viewers thought based on the song lyrics. However, despite it looking like a frozen snack, Rodrigo revealed that she was actually eating something much different.
Olivia Rodrigo released the ‘deja vu’ music video on April 1
The High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star dropped “deja vu” on April 1. She released the song and music video simultaneously after fans obsessed over “drivers license.”
The music video featured beautiful scenic imagery of Rodrigo driving, wearing gorgeous outfits, and smashing monitors. The song lyrics referenced a heartbroken person. The narrator saw a past lover making new “reused” memories with another person.
Rodrigo, in the clip, watched on as a new person wore the same green dress and pink cardigan as her. The lyrics mentioned strawberry ice cream, being an actress, and listening to Billy Joel.
The start and end of the music video paralleled each other. The beginning showcased Rodrigo driving a vintage car with strawberry ice cream. The end showed the other girl doing the very same thing.
The “drivers license” singer revealed a behind-the-scenes truth about the food item — it wasn’t actually ice cream.
Olivia Rodrigo seemingly ate strawberry ice cream in the clip
In the music video, she was seen licking what was supposed to look like strawberry ice cream. The lyrics, per Genius, called out Rodrigo’s favorite ice cream flavor in the first verse and in the bridge. The star sang: “Strawberry ice cream, one spoon for two” and “Strawberry ice cream in Malibu.”
Rodrigo revealed on an Instagram Live on April 1 that they didn’t use strawberry ice cream for filming. They actually used mashed potatoes.
For logistical reasoning, this makes sense. The amount of time it takes to film a music video would require multiple ice cream cups. The snack would melt. And mashed potatoes wouldn’t.
Rodrigo isn’t the first to use mashed potatoes as a filming hack in lieu of frozen yogurt or ice cream. It’s a Hollywood hack used in other productions as well.
Other productions have used this trick to show frozen snacks as well
The Good Place, which was a comedy that aired on NBC, also often had frozen yogurt as a prominent prop referenced on the show. The characters frequently ate frozen yogurt in what was their afterlife limbo.
The star of the show, Kristen Bell, weighed in on Twitter on how the production filmed those scenes.
“It’s actually colored mashed potatoes,” Bell wrote. “They don’t melt in the sun as easily.”
While some find mashed potatoes delicious, that takes some serious acting to pretend that the snack is the equivalent of ice cream or frozen yogurt. Both Rodrigo and those on The Good Place convinced viewers just fine, though.
