Body image, mental health, drug use, toxic masculinity, narcissistic social media thirst, beauty standards, casual sex hook-ups, and alienation are explored in the video for “Brown Rice”, the new single from Natti Vogel which stars Matt Wilkas as a gay New Yorker searching for personal answers to the emptiness in his life.
Watch the wk-unfriendly video above.
You’ll recognize Wilkas from his new web series Matt & Dan, and also because he made international headlines by kissing boyfriend Gus Kenworthy at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Vogel spoke about the video with Billboard: “I just began to feel how much untapped emotional and psychic intensity there is behind body transformation. I’m coming from a place of having been a fat kid and our executive producer is coming from a place of having been a top male model. And yet a bunch of very different bodies seem to relate to this song, from my healthy fat friends to my thin friends who openly struggle with eating disorders. It makes me feel like I did something right.”
The title of the song came from a story about Ryan Reynolds’ training regimen on an entertainment site. Apparently Reynolds told the site he ate brown rice but only before 8 pm at night.
The clip, directed by Eamon Foley, also features Vogel at the piano, adult film actor Tegan Zayne, and dancers Amos Oliver III, Marquis Floyd, and Sebastian Abarbanell.
Vogel’s EP Serving Body is out now on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and other services.
