Dakota Johnson On Featuring In Taylor Swift’s Patient Zero Music Video: ‘We Work Really Well Together’

Taylor Swift said on Thursday that she will debut the video for Patient Zero at the MTV VMAs on Sunday. She also posted a 13-second clip that introduced Dakota Johnson as one of the cast members.

Swift announced Patient Zero on Tuesday and followed it on Wednesday with The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore.

The new video reveal adds another layer to that release plan. Johnson’s appearance in the teaser also brings a long-running friendship into the spotlight as Swift builds up to the album’s Friday release.

Dakota Johnson on collaborating with Taylor Swift

According to Variety, Johnson discussed her part in the Patient Zero video at her upcoming movie Verity red carpet premiere in London on Thursday. She also spoke about it on Ambar Lee and Leah Briars’ Fangirl Nation podcast the same day. She described the project as a team effort built on a friendship that has lasted for years.

“Working with your friends is like the most fun thing on the planet because we’ve known each other for so long, we respect each other’s creative minds, and to be able to work alongside her and support and assist and be a person whom she tells what to do is wonderful,” Johnson said.

“Taylor and I have been friends for a really long time and we’re very close, and we decided to work together and it’s great,” Johnson added. “Normally I would say ‘Don’t work with your friends,’ but we work really well together. It was so fun. So fun. It was the best. We just had the best time.”

About Taylor-Dakota's friendship

The pair have also been seen together in public this year. Johnson attended Swift’s star-studded wedding at Madison Square Garden in July, adding to signs of a long friendship.

The music release sits at the centre of this week’s announcements. The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore expands last year’s The Life of a Showgirl and adds four new tracks: Patient Zero, Cleveland!, Pink Clouding and Babylon.

Swift explained the new release in a social media post that looked back at the original album’s opening week and the writing that followed in Sweden.

“About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing,” Swift wrote on social media. “Something that completely blew my mind… You gave ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ the biggest first week for an album in history. I took a trip to Sweden to celebrate with Max and Shellback, my two collaborators on this album. Really, we just wanted to reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in, but there was a studio there and we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs. I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made. ‘The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore’ including four new songs, is out on Friday and available to preorder and save now (sic).”