Joseph Wilson heads to Margate to create a Super 8mm-shot melodrama inspired by Anna Nicole Smith, in the video for indie-pop combo Autoheart.

With a narrative inspired by the late Anna Nicole Smith’s relationship with 89 year old J. Howard Marshall when she was in her mid-20s, the video for Juggernaut features 'Fancy Shews!', aka drag performer Georgie B, as 'Vicky', who disconsolately wanders through the English seaside resort clutching an urn of ashes of her boyfriend - played (in flashback scenes) by 90 year old Margate legend Maurice Morris.

Wilson's association with Georgie B stems from them both working as drag performers, performing at Queer club nights including Sink the Pink and The NYC Downlow at Glastonbury. Wilson got his start as a director documenting East London's eclectic Queer club scene - his inaugural documentary project Drag is my Ecstasy, was an acclaimed portrait of underground drag collective ‘Sink the Pink - and Georgie worked as stylist on the previous Wilson-directed video for Autoheart. According to Wilson, she was always going to be the star of this one.

“When I was approached by Autoheart to direct the video for Juggernaut, they had only one request: base the storyline around Georgie B aka Fancy Shews! She had done the styling for our last collaboration for the I Know That He Loves Me video in 2021 and they had become fans.

"I’ve performed with Georgie for the past 10 years at Queer club nights and most recently travelled to Australia to perform in a cabaret about a failing 18th Century Mollie House with our Drag Mum, A Man To Pet. Georgie played Princess Seraphina and had size ZZ boobs… the biggest breastplate size you can get! We joked about using them for the video but it actually became the starting point to the idea. A few days later the plot came together.

"'I knew that we would set each other free’ was a line that felt like it needed a good juxtaposition, which led me to think of Anna Nicole Smith who married 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall when she was 26. I spoke to the band about the idea and we started researching Anna Nicole and the way she and many famous women are vilified in the media. We agreed on the idea and ‘Vicky’ - Anna Nicole Smith’s real name was Vickie Lynn Hogan - was born.

"We did some make up tests with MUA Guy Common and played around with some forehead prosthetics and enhanced cheekbones. I wanted Vicky to appear demonic – a literal manifestation of the demonisation of women. And despite looking like a monster from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, we would see that she was vulnerable, emotional and devastated at the loss of her great love."

Above: Joseph Wilson (right) with Maurice Morris (left) and Fancy Shews! aka Georgie B (centre) on set on Juggernaut video

Wilson chose Margate as the shoot location for the PRETTYBIRD-produced shoot, because of the British roots of the band and an affinity with Margate, the home former hometown of his grandma, which he describes as the ‘Kent Riviera’, and where he remembers her going for walks along the seafront with her then 85-year-old boyfriend.

"When casting Marshall we were put in touch with 90 year old Margate legend Maurice Morris, who has lived in Margate his entire life. He was so wonderful to work with and feel really privileged to have met him. He was completely speechless when he first saw Georgie as Vicky! Throughout her life people doubted Anna Nicole’s feelings for Marshall, assuming she was a gold digger, and she was constantly asked about it.

"She was judged, ridiculed and abused for the way she looked. She always said she loved Marshall, despite the age difference, and that he was the only man who ever made her feel loved. ‘I feel euphoric in your arms tonight/As I’m magnified, I feel alive’. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for?”