His girlfriend at the time suggested he pursue modelling. He said he played college basketball and baseball but blew out his knee and was forced to return to Canada when he lost his student visa. When he was expelled from high school at 17, only weeks before graduation, Nowell took off for California. His mother remarried when Nowell was 10 and they relocated to Calgary. “I said, ‘You know what? What if instead of me kissing a guy at the end of the video, what if I just give a guy my number or something like that?’”īorn in Saskatoon, Nowell moved to Regina with his mother when she separated from his father, whom he described as “a gangster hustler drug dealer alcoholic” who spent time in jail and in treatment for mental health issues. He claimed to have come up with the ending that was used in the video. I said ‘I really don’t think I’m comfortable kissing a guy for a music video.’” I’m not going to kiss a guy, especially for $500. “I was like, ‘I’m going to be completely honest with you. Nowell said the original storyline called for his character to kiss the guy. “The fact that they had to make me gay at the end of the video… it was all very… I didn’t like being known as the gay guy in the ‘Call Me Maybe’ video. The video’s twist, though, is that Nowell’s character is more interested in Jepsen’s guitar player.ĮW praised “Call Me Maybe” for having “one of the great classic twists in the history of music videos.”īut Nowell admitted he was initially put off by the storyline. Jepsen seductively soaps up a car in the driveway and fantasizes about appearing on the cover of a romance novel with the neighbourhood hottie. Less than 20 seconds into the song, he pulls off his T-shirt to reveal his toned and tattooed torso. His character catches the eye of Jepsen as he arrives in her backyard to mow the lawn. 30, 2011 – a “cold a** day,” Nowell recalled. The video for “Call Me Maybe,” directed by Ben Knechtel, was filmed on a residential street in Langley, BC on Oct.
Nowell, now 29 and covered with more tattoos, said he still gets recognized occasionally – usually by younger girls and gay guys. “It was a really cool experience to be part of. It was a learning experience,” said Nowell, on the phone from Los Angeles. “She won awards because of that video and she never reached out to me.” “I personally don’t have anything positive to say about Carly Rae,” he said. Nowell said he hasn’t spoken to Jepsen since the video premiered. “I don’t know who ended up making my money, but I never saw a single penny for it.” He blamed the raw deal he got on his own inexperience at the time and “some really shady stuff” that was allegedly going on at his agency. Nowell said he was paid only $500 for the day-long shoot and, despite being told he would also receive royalties, he said he “didn’t get a single penny in royalties.” “It was literally showing my face more than hers.” Nowell said he was ubiquitous in commercials for Jepsen’s album. “I was always the ‘Call Me Maybe' guy, everywhere I went, and after awhile I got really sick of hearing that." “It was really difficult for me and really frustrating. “It’s what people began to recognize me as and know me as, and it was only that,” he said.
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Since it debuted in March 2012, “Call Me Maybe” has been viewed more than 1 billion times.īut, in an exclusive interview with iHeartRadio.ca, Nowell – who was named one of the “Men We Love” in a 2012 issue of People – revealed the personal and professional struggles he faced in the years that followed. With “The sky is the limit” tattooed across his chest and scripture inked on his right ribcage, Nowell, then 22, was the object of Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen’s flirtation in her breakthrough video.
It has been six years since Holden Nowell became known around the world as the guy in the “Call Me Maybe” video.
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