MTV Video Music Awards producer Van Toffler is breaking down exactly how Taylor Swift’s Artist Director award came to fruition.
“Basically, a bunch of us — MTV employees, the producers, the production team — were looking at Taylor’s body of work and her evolution,” Toffler explained to Rolling Stone in an interview published Monday, September 28. “She’s an artist who has thrived in front of the camera and behind the camera, in all genres of music.”
Toffler continued, “When I was running MTV Networks, CMT was part of my portfolio, and she was first honored there for ‘Tim McGraw.’ Then she came and did the show at Radio City, which was a memorable night. She’s just evolved so much, and we felt this would be a great way to honor her work. So we decided to do that as a group internally in the production team and reached out to her and her team. We’re happy it worked out.”
Swift, 36, took the stage at the Sunday, September 27, awards ceremony to receive the honor, which was presented to her by close friend Dakota Johnson — who also starred in Swift’s music video for her new song “Patient Zero.” The video premiered during the VMAs.
“She picked Dakota, and she takes that work so seriously in all aspects of those videos,” Toffler told the outlet on Monday. “They are short films, no doubt. She makes exceptional videos, so we felt this would be the right time to honor her for that. It turns out she also won Video of the Year.”
Swift took home the prestigious Video of the Year award for her “Fate of Ophelia” music video, dedicating the honor to the late Dolly Parton. (Parton died in August at age 80 after a “brief” battle with cancer.)
“She keeps pushing it and making great stuff,” Toffler said of Swift. “It’s not just the music; it’s the visual aspect as well that she marries to it. She is a true visionary.”
Toffler’s comments come after executive producer Bruce Gillmer raised eyebrows while discussing the Artist Director Honors with AP Entertainment. “[It’s] an extension of the [Video] Vanguard [Award],” he explained before the ceremony. “And in many ways, even larger in stature because it was an idea that, quite frankly, the kernel of the idea came from external. I’ll leave it at that.”
Apart from the Artist Director Honors, Swift walked away from the awards show with two trophies from her 11 nominations, including Best Direction for “Opalite.”
Swift was also nominated for Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Pop Song for her hit “The Fate of Ophelia,” Best Album for The Life of a Showgirl, Artist of the Year and Song of the Summer for her Toy Story 5 track, “I Knew It, I Knew You.”
