Margaret Qualley Serves Taylor Swift in “Delicate” for Bleachers’ “Tiny Moves” (Which Is Meta Because Taylor Swift Serves Margaret Qualley for “Delicate”)

Continuing to act as Jack Antonoff’s muse in multiple ways, Margaret Qualley makes a far more pronounced appearance in the latest Bleachers video than she did in their last one (some wannabe Lynchian fare for “Alma Mater” featuring Lana Del Rey). Indeed, she’s the star of the show. One that is rather limited in production value (on the surface), but nonetheless channels the vibe of Taylor Swift in her far more “blockbuster-y” 2018 video for “Delicate,” directed by Joseph Kahn. This, of course, is a rather meta statement considering Swift borrowed all her swagger for “Delicate” from Spike Jonze’s 2016 ad for Kenzo World starring none other than Qualley. 

In said ad, not only is Qualley wearing a similar style of frock to Swift’s in “Delicate” (the latter wearing a blue instead of a green tone), but, most important of all, she’s dancing “like no one is watching.” That is to say, like a monkey let loose from the zoo. This is precisely how Swift feels in “Delicate” upon realizing that she’s invisible. A dream come true for someone so incessantly scrutinized. With this newfound freedom from being studied, let alone perceived at all, Swift delves into some very Qualley-esque choreo that eventually leads her out into the pouring rain (pouring rain being Swift’s bread and butter when it comes to accenting dramatic effect).

Funnily enough, this is one of the few songs in recent years that Swift didn’t tap Jack Antonoff to produce. Instead, Shellback and Max Martin (the latter being all over the Reputation album) did. But even if Antonoff had produced the track, he wouldn’t have said anything to Swift about how “familiar” her video looked. Because, at that time, he still wasn’t dating Qualley. Instead, he was in his breakup year with Lena Dunham (who Qualley probably doesn’t want to think about having shared a penis with). Right after their breakup in early 2018, Antonoff went right for a visual opposite of Dunham in Carlotta Kohl. 

Similarly to Antonoff’s rebounding propensities, right after her breakup with Shia LaBeouf in 2021, she began dating Antonoff. A man who, instead of being an outright fuckboy (Qualley had already made that mistake with Pete Davidson in 2019, too), just looks like one. Though her romance with LaBeouf only lasted a year, it was still enough time for them to star in a music video for “Love Me Like You Hate Me” by Rainsford (a.k.a. Margaret’s sister, Rainey Qualley). Although this gave her another slight opportunity to showcase her dancing and movement abilities (having been trained heavily in dance and ballet during her teen years before quitting to study acting), it is with Bleachers’ “Tiny Moves” video that she gets to truly display her chops in a manner not seen since the Kenzo World ad that Swift so blatantly borrowed from.

Qualley’s involvement in the conception of the video appears to be so extensive that she even has a co-directing credit with Bleachers go-to Alex Lockett. And, perhaps to honor Antonoff’s hipster roots, the video’s backdrop is the New York skyline (filmed from a vantage point that one presumes is in Williamsburg). 

Considering the chorus of the song goes, “The tiniest moves you make/Watchin’ the whole world shake/Watchin’ my whole world change/Tiniest twist of faith/Watchin’ the whole world shake/Watchin’ my whole world change,” having Qualley not only present in it as the focal point, but also showing off her dance moves feels like a no-brainer. For, when speaking of this song in particular, Antonoff noted, “​​I met my now-wife, and it feels like a lot of the mythology and armor that I wore [fell off]. And when you have a big shift like that, which was really meeting my person, it’s brilliant and amazing, but it’s also destabilizing ’cause you have to deal with all of the past, where you lived by this code that was bullshit.” 

As Qualley dances (once again in a long, flowing frock—this time a white one instead of a green one à la Kenzo World) like she’s being demonically possessed (that’s kind of her thing) against the night sky, the camera eventually turns away from the view of the city to reveal Antonoff himself leaning against the hood of his car while marveling at Qualley from afar. Evidently, she dances long enough for dawn to eventually come (as manifested by the lightening sky color), finally stopping to stare back at Antonoff and approach him. As though she’s made enough “tiny moves” and can finally cease performing them so as to see what kind of ripple effects they’ve invoked.

Getting closer to “her man” so that she can embrace him (complete with cheesy, circling camerawork to accent the intensity of their connection), Qualley can probably safely say that her tiny moves have had a big impact. Which was already apparent when Swift saw fit to cop them for “Delicate.”