Apparently, Dakota Johnson has a simple rule when it comes to mixing friendship and work: don’t. Taylor Swift, however, is rightfully the exception.
As Swift prepares to debut her new “Patient Zero” music video during the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday (Sept. 27), Johnson is opening up about what it was like to collaborate with one of her longtime friends.
“Taylor and I have been friends for a really long time, and we’re very close,” Johnson said in a Sept. 24 interview with Fan Girl Nation, which she did alongside her “Verity” co-star Josh Hartnett. “And we decided to work together, and it’s great.”
“Normally, I would say don’t work with your friends,” Johnson added. “But we work really well together.”
That friendship is now playing out on screen, with Johnson starring alongside Swift and Colin Farrell in the “Patient Zero” video. Swift directed the visual, which will make its world premiere during the VMAs on Sunday.
Swift first gave fans a glimpse of the collaboration Thursday with a 13-second teaser that revealed Johnson and Farrell as the video’s co-stars. The fleeting clip shows Swift and Johnson together in several mysterious scenes, including one at a gravesite, while Farrell also appears in the cinematic visual.
Johnson’s casting is also a timely crossover: She is currently promoting “Verity,” the psychological thriller in which she stars alongside Hartnett. But her appearance in “Patient Zero” marks a very different kind of collaboration — one rooted in her personal friendship with Swift.
The two have maintained a friendship for years, with Swift even writing about Johnson in an April TIME profile celebrating the actress as one of the magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2026. Swift praised Johnson’s frankness and described her as someone whose candor makes it feel like she “can’t lie.”
“Patient Zero” is the first peek from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, which arrives Friday (Sept. 25). The music video will follow two days later with its VMAs premiere, where Swift will also receive the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors.
