Kahn fed up with pop-culture sensibilities
Director of Swift videos ridicules gossip
Joseph Kahn believes he’s contributing to the endangerment of Koreans.
Research has shown that South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, at less than 1.1 births per woman. But Kahn isn’t married, and he doesn’t plan to have kids. He jokes that Koreans will soon be extinct.
“We’re literally the pandas of the human race,” he says. “You’re very lucky to be talking to me, because I’m a beautiful panda.”
The comparison isn’t totally frivolous, as Kahn is unique in Hollywood. He’s the rare director who has achieved minor celebrity status not for his feature films, but for his persona and his short-form work, such as four music videos for Taylor Swift, including the actionpacked, star-studded Bad Blood, which won the 2015 Video Music Award for video of the year. And in an industry that has been repeatedly called out for its lack of diversity, he’s a successful KoreanAmerican immigrant.
But most important to him is that, unlike many calculating, ultra-PR-conscious stars of modern Hollywood, Kahn, 43, keeps it real. His Twitter feed is a bastion of brutal honesty and shade that Hollywood blogs occasionally pick up on for one-off stories. Recently, for instance, his comments calling Kim Kardashian “one of the most untalented women in the world” during the controversy over whether Swift consented to her appearance in Kanye West’s Famous, made headlines, and he ridiculed Kim’s dad’s support of O.J. Simpson during his murder trial.
But more importantly to Kahn, he’s fed up with how the media covers celebrity news. “Our world is equating gossip with world news. That’s the world we live in now,” he says. Few outlets are focused on artistry, and Kahn can’t stand it — so he takes to Twitter to try to set the record straight.
For Kahn, it isn’t enough just to create films. He believes part of his art involves pointing out inconsistencies, half-truths and hypocrisies.