Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the music video release, Eli Swanson shares behind-the-scenes stories and his career journey into medicine
Britney Spears’ iconic “Oops!…I Did It Again” music video came out 25 years ago today, on April 11, 2000
The out-of-this world video also starred a model named Eli Swanson, who famously presents Spears with the “Heart of the Ocean” necklace from Titanic toward the end
Now a surgeon, Swanson speaks to PEOPLE about his time with Spears, and the years since
It’s been 25 years since Britney Spears’ “Oops!… I Did It Again” music video premiered — a moment that cemented the young artist’s status as a pop icon for a new generation.
While Spears’ red jumpsuit became a defining symbol of the era, there was another memorable figure in the video: an astronaut who, for many, became as recognizable as the song itself.
At just 22 years old, the man behind the space suit never anticipated the wild ride that would follow. What began as a simple audition for an unknown artist quickly turned into an experience he would never forget.
Model Eli Swanson had gone through several other music video auditions, but had no idea what he was signing up for when he walked into this specific casting room.
“They would have auditions for unknown artists and sometimes it was actually someone that nobody knew, like some Swedish folk singer … and sometimes it would be someone that people knew,” Swanson tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I think they did that to avoid people crashing the casting.”
It was a mysterious, low-key experience, but he went through the motions anyway — reading a short paragraph and pretending to walk on the moon. He didn’t find out what the audition was for until just before shooting began. “The next day, I received the call time and details. When I arrived, I discovered what the project was, which was exciting,” Swanson says.
At the time, the soon-to-be interstellar heartthrob had just started a new bartending gig — one that would be short-lived.
“They needed me to work the same weekend as the video shoot,” Swanson recalls, “but I explained that I couldn’t, due to a prior commitment. Basically, they just said, ‘Well if you can’t be a team player and step up when we need you, then just don’t come back.’ ” And that’s exactly what he did.
Although he had done commercials, print work, fashion shows and appeared in an independent film, the Spears music video was the most well-known project Swanson had been featured in.
Of shooting the “Oops!… I Did It Again” video, Swanson has nothing but fun memories. For starters, he reveals the suit he wore was an authentic, old NASA space suit. “That was actually real,” he admits. “Pretty cool to wear.”
Shooting took place on a giant soundstage, resembling an airplane hangar. “Half of it was a green screen, and the other half had red rocks to mimic the surface of Mars,” Swanson describes. “There was also a whole crew of dancers and the red suit.”
The video was directed by Nigel Dick, who previously worked with Spears on “…Baby One More Time,” “Sometimes” and “(You Drive Me) Crazy.”
It was a surreal experience, made even more memorable by meeting Spears herself. “When I met her for the first time, she was very sweet. She had her little dog and her mom with her,” he shares. “It was cool to meet her.”
While he didn’t know what to expect from someone so famous, his interactions with Spears were nothing short of pleasant. “She was very, very nice … very humble,” Swanson recalls.
Nevertheless, the shoot wasn’t without its hiccups. “During the filming of a scene, a piece of the camera fell off and hit Britney in the head,” he reveals, adding that they had to stop shooting because the pop star needed medical attention.
“She took it like a champion, obviously,” Swanson says. “I think she had a little laceration on her head, but it wasn’t anything crazy.”
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Though Swanson never expected to become a figure in pop culture, he’s been recognized a few times over the years, though more so when he was younger.
Not long after the video dropped, Swanson found himself riding the Paris Métro. To his surprise, the “Oops!… I Did It Again” video was playing on one of the subway’s TVs and a group of high schoolers saw the clip and quickly recognized him.
“It was pretty funny because it was so far away and for some reason that video with the red jumpsuit was just kind of iconic,” Swanson says. “A lot of people remember that video.”
Now 47 and a doctor in Arizona, he still feels the video’s impact today, in the most unexpected places. “It’s kind of funny, ‘cause there’s been a few times where I have my first surgical case, and someone will put the video on, or the song on, like when I walk into the room,” he says with a laugh.
Yes, Swanson is now an orthopedic trauma surgeon. Despite going through different chapters in his life, he admits his eyes were always set on a career in medicine.
“The plan before any of that [fame] had happened was to go to medical school,” he shares, but Swanson needed to get a few things in order for his application, so he planned to take a year off.
While working and traveling, he applied to medical schools and was finally accepted to Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. However, at this point, Swanson was too involved in the entertainment chapter of his life, so he deferred his enrollment for a year, which ended up turning into four.
“Although the medical track was always the original plan, I definitely … had some soul-searching to decide if I was gonna go through with that or you know continue in the entertainment realm, and I decided to go to medical school,” Swanson tells PEOPLE. “I remember I’d been out of school for four years and when I first started back into academics, I was thinking ‘What did I get myself into?’ ”
Despite the grueling, long work hours, Swanson says he has no regrets. “Being a surgeon is my calling. It’s what I was supposed to do. I think it was the right decision.”
Though he left the entertainment industry behind, the astronaut still has brushes with fame from time to time. A few short years after the video shoot, Swanson was invited to a party thrown by his modeling agency at the time, Wilhelmina. The event, which also coincided with his birthday, had some surprise guests.
“Somehow Britney and Christina Aguilera ended up coming to the event, and I didn’t realize that they [reportedly] didn’t like each other very much at the time,” he recalls. “They were there briefly, and then when they found out the other one was there, they both ended up leaving.”
Another core memory of his played out after the then-medical student ran into Spears in a New York City nightclub. “Britney was there with her entourage,” he says. “I walked up and she remembered me. We just said hello, had a hug, and that was the last time I saw her face-to-face.”
Looking back on his unexpected role in the music video, the astronaut says, “I’m definitely grateful. I’m proud to have been involved with that.”
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