One Direction’s debut video almost got shut down by police.
The group released the video for their first single ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ on August 19, 2011 and director John Urbano explained the problems they had with the California Highway Patrol, who were directing traffic while they drove an orange VW camper van along Highway 1 to get the perfect shot.
In an interview to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the release, he told Fuse.tv: "The cops were saying ‘Hold on,’ and I’m telling them to go. Then we p****d the cops off. Literally, they came up, and they were screaming at us, and they walked away and we all laughed inside the car.
"I was like, ‘Look guys, we have to pay attention to them because if they shut us down, we can’t use the highway.’"
The band – Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and former member Zayn Malik – were complete unknowns in America when they shot the video in Malibu and John revealed that curious passers-by stopped to ask who they were.
He said: "I mean; can you imagine that today? Like, if One Direction were on any beach in the world, and nobody knew who they were? Girls were just saying, like, ‘Who are these guys? They kind of sound good?’ To watch them go from that to not being able to go anywhere without being attacked is pretty cool."
One Direction’s video drama
