‘Criminal’ Director Wasn’t ‘Super Stoked’ Britney Spears Wanted Boyfriend in Video

Britney Spears' sex and violence-themed video for 'Criminal' also stars her real-life boyfriend Jason Trawick. It was Brit's choice to cast Trawick as her co-star, the Clyde to her Bonnie, in the vid. At first, that didn't sit well with director Christopher Marrs Piliero, who was not "super stoked" about the idea. It was nothing against Trawick; instead, it was about making an epic video that felt like a mini-move and he thought using an actor would be better suited to get the point across. It didn't hurt that the video's sexual content was performed by two people actually in a relationship. It made it more "real!"

"When she first hit me up, she had a basic story in mind, and she actually always originally planned to have Jason, her boyfriend, play the role, and I wasn't super stoked on that idea at first, actually," the director told MTV News.

The director further explained, "I wanted to make a really rad, epic video, and I definitely got the sense from her she wanted something really cool. And in my mind, I was just thinking then, 'We really should not be using your boyfriend; we should get an actor.'" The director didn't say that to Brit – and we don't blame him, since it's her video and she is a diva!

But in the back of his mind, all he kept thinking was "I don't like this idea at all."

However, Trawick and his nascent acting skills quickly won the director over and the first timer turned in a killer performance. "At the end of the day, Jason killed it," Piliero said. "That was one of those things I was really stoked [about], as much as I went into it like, 'Wow, he's not an actor. This is going to be interesting,' but I really do like a challenge, and I really do like the idea that I'm a director and my job is to direct and get the performance. For me, it was a fun challenge to be like, 'I'm gonna make sure that you are awesome,' and he was."

Looks like Brit's instincts about her BF were correct.

Watch Christopher Mars Piliero Talk About Britney Spears 'Criminal' Video