Rider Strongmay be most well-known for his starring role as the troubled teen with a heart of gold, Shawn Hunter, onBoy Meets Worldand its spinoffGirl Meets World, but he has many more tricks up his sleeve aside from acting — writing and directing being two of his best.
The 41-year-old multifaceted artist has helmed the newest music video from indie rock bandTyphoon(who playedStrong’s wedding in 2013!) for their song “We’re in It.”
Shot over the course of just three days in the redwoods of Sonoma County, California, where Strong grew up, the video starsJon Huertas(who plays Miguel onThis Is Us), Leif Gantvoort (The Amazing Spider-Man,General Hospital) and Typhoon’s frontman Kyle Morton.
Rider Strong and Kyle Morton.Shiloh Strong
Rider Strong, Jon Huertas, Leif Gantvoort and Kyle Morton.Shiloh Strong
“It’s horrifying. It’s dark,” Strong tells PEOPLE of the sci-fi project, which marks his first time taking on the role of director for a music video — an experience he admits was “really challenging” and recalls being “basically like making a silent film.”
“Especially with playwriting, it’s all about dialogue. It’s all about the words and allowing thecharacters to express themselves verbally. And so for this it was like, ‘Oh, no, I have to think purely visually,’ " he says. “At first, I was terrified of that. I was taking away what I consider my greatest tool, which is my ability to write with the words.”
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Rider Strong directs Typhoon’s “We’re in It”.Rider Strong
Rider Strong directs Typhoon’s “We’re in It”.Shiloh Strong
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The video follows the characters of Huertas, 51, and Gantvoort, 49, as they attemptto travel back in timeto prevent the death of a friend. While their adventure begins as an upbeat one, the two are soon shown struggling against one another as paranoia and distrust set in.
The message behind the “We’re in It” video — which Strong considers “a companion piece” to the song, rather than an exact visual representation — feels like “a great reflection of 2020,” with a “very strong narrative.”
“This song really spoke to me about divisions — infriendships in particular, but in relationshipsin general and how you can grow apart from people and you and try and maintain a relationship despite differences, which speaks to our nation and our world right now,” he explains.
Despite the darker parts of the track and video, though, Strong says, “While it deals with a suicide attempt and friendship falling apart, if you notice at the end, there is an optimism there. And so I hope people can really sit with the story of the song and come away with that optimism, even though it’s kind of horrifying in the process.”
Rider Strong in Cabin Fever.Scott Kevan/Down Home Ent/Kobal/Shutterstock
But since wrapping up his rolereprisal of Shawn inGirl Meets World— several episodes of which he also directed, most alongside his brother and frequent filmmaking partnerShiloh Strong— the star is “pretty much done with acting,” and playing Shawn one more time served as “a period at the end of a long sentence that had started when I was a teenager.”
For Strong (whose talents and past works include poetry, playwrighting, screenwriting and more), though, the creative juices will continue to flow in other ways. For example, he’s currently “developing a feature that is in a lot of ways, a companion piece to” the Typhoon music video,in the “horror sci-fi” genre, and focusing on finishing his first novel this year.
“I’ve spent so much of my career jumping into projects or committing to other people’s things. … Every time I’d get a studio writing gig, I’d be like, ‘This is the one that’s going to get made’ … and it doesn’t happen,” he tells PEOPLE. “So now, [I’m] taking the reins and [being] like, ‘What do I want to do?’ And the truth is, I want to write books and I want to make movies.”
“I turned 40 in a pandemic and [I’m] just realizing I want to create the things that I really care about in life,” Strong adds. “It’s like, ‘I need to just take the reins and surround myself with creative people I want to be around and make the projects I want to make.’ "
source: people.com
