Finally, We Have An Explanation For The Flip Phone In Adele’s ‘Hello’ Video 

Finally, We Have An Explanation For The Flip Phone In Adele’s ‘Hello’ Video

If you’re anything like us (and Katy Perry, and Kate Hudson, and Sam Smith, and Kelly Clarkson, and Ellen DeGeneres…) you’ve been sobbing your way through infinite boxes of tissues while playing Adele’s “Hello” video on a loop since it released on Friday. But in between all those crying fits and YAAAAS QUEENs, you’ve probably also had a small-but-vital nagging question hindering the full enjoyment of your hairbrush singing sessions:

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH THAT FLIP PHONE?

Seriously, we’re willing to bet half the video’s viewing audience doesn’t even know what the heck that thing is – how long has it been since you’ve even seen one in the wild? And we’re definitely not the only ones who noticed it. Lucky for us, a few journalistic heroes (someone alert the Pulitzer panel!) saw fit to ask “Hello” director Xavier Dolan the burning question.

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“It makes me uncomfortable filming iPhones because I feel like I’m shooting an iPhone commercial. And the same thing stands for cars: Drive them! Buy them! But on film, they’re distracting to me. They’re elements that you identify to our reality so much that – whether it’s a short film, a film, a music video – they just hurt the piece’s sensibility and reality, and it’s not as romantic,” Dolan told

. “Those things: iPhones, laptops, all those elements, to me, they bring me back to reality: That’s not what you want. You want to get out of your own life; you want to enter someone else’s; you want to travel somewhere; you want to be told a story. I’m realizing maybe I’ve been more distracting than anything else with that flip phone, but it wasn’t intentional!”

. “I could see the GIFs on Twitter. I’m like, ’Guys, get over it. It doesn’t matter.’ But the real explanation is that I never like filming modern phones or cars. They’re so implanted in our lives that when you see them in movies you’re reminded you’re in reality.”

We’re good with that explanation, though we also would’ve accepted, “At least I can say that I trieeeeeeeeeeeeeeed.” Brb, we have a video to watch.

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