Featured Image Credit: Vevo/Justin Bieber
Topics: Celebrity, Justin Bieber, Music, Entertainment
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Celebrity, Justin Bieber, Music, Entertainment
The woman who starred in Justin Bieber’s 'Baby' music video has spoken out on the backlash from fans over it a whole 15 years later.
Anyone who came down with a massive case of Bieber Fever back in 2010, when the now-30-year-old singer released the hit single in 2010 as part of his debut first studio album, will know all about the jealousy they felt for the girl who starred alongside Bieber in the vid.
The girl in question, who is now 31, is none other than Jasmine Villegas - who was a singer and actress in her own right before the major opp came her way.
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Speaking about being cast in an interview published last week (19 February), Villegas told People: "I was around 16, 17. I was already doing music, but at the time I was signed to Sony Epic and had been recording and all that.
"At the time I did have a clue of who he was because I had seen YouTube videos. When I first got offered the video, I just didn't put two and two together."
Villegas was offered the job after a videographer/photographer she had previously worked with brought it to her attention.
"He brought it to our attention like, 'Hey, I showed them your picture, and they want you to be in the 'Baby' video, his music video.' And I was like, 'Oh, my God, that's so awesome'," Villegas recalled.
Clearly buzzing, the then-teen recalled: "It was my first time being in a music video that wasn't my own."
While admitting filming the video was a 'long, lengthy process', Villegas said the experience was 'pretty amazing'.
"Everybody quickly knew who he was and seeing myself in the video and seeing that online and on TV, it was such an honour," she continued.
However, her new-found fame as Bieber's on-screen love interest who batted away his many advances in the music video came with its fair share of backlash from die-hard fans.
"I didn't get too much love from his fans," the mum-of-two admitted. "They did not like me very much. There was a lot of online bullying for a while. A lot of people couldn't differentiate between it being acting and it being real life."
"A lot of girls thought I was really pushing him away, hurting him," she continues. "That kind of bled into the tour we went on after the music video. While I was performing, I used to get flipped off a lot."
Such fans have since been able to come around now, over a decade later, with Villegas explaining: "We all grew up together. It is so funny because I do meet a lot of people in general and they're like, 'My God, I hated you, but I love you now. You're so sweet.' And I'm like, 'Oh, thank you so much'."
"A lot of them were little girls at the time. I was younger too, but a lot of them were a lot younger than me. So now that we're all older, it's that common ground of like, 'Oh, my God, I used to freaking hate you, but you're so cool.' "
And, when asked if she'd ever work with Bieber again, Villegas shared: "Absolutely. I'm so happy for him and how his life has turned out - his marriage and his baby and all that great stuff. It would be awesome to work together again."