Jonas Brothers' 'Sucker' Video: 9 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets From Director Anthony Mandler

Soon after spending the early-aughts networking with with each person from Rihanna and Taylor Swift to Jay-Z and Drake, director Anthony Mandler had been in music video retirement. However any time once he got a telephone call from Roc Country about helming a video for the newly reunited Jonas Brothers — the band's first one in six years — it was enough to get the veteran fantasist back in action.

"It was about helping reimagine this polarizing order with this excellent new music, and after the developments of those as males to gentlemen, essentially. It was exhilarating Mandler told MTV News over the phone.

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The brothers approached him with a rough concept in mind: They wanted to do a video with their significant others, and so they wanted it to have a Wes Anderson vibe. "They gave me the basis and foundation to work with," Mandler explained, "and then I just categorize kind of ramped it up and turned it into full-blown chaos."

The resulting visual feast for "Sucker" is a peppy, eye catching affair that reintroduces Jonas Brothers in spectacular style. Below, Mandler tells us nine behind-the-scenes secrets from their epic comeback vid.

The Hatfield Residence was as lavish as it looked

"Once we figured out we were going to be in London, we began looking for the hugest home we might find and the most over-the-top place," Mandler mentioned about filming at the grand nation estate, which was also the setting for 2018's The Favourite. It proved the best backdrop for the JoBros' high-fashion debauchery, even if shooting there required cautious footing.

"It's overwhelming, it really is," Mandler continued. "It's very, very dramatic, over-the-top, like something from another age and era come to life. You have $200 million of art in one room. So it's a little bit worrisome at times, nevertheless every frame looks beautiful."

The bros and their ladies had chemistry to boot

"You learn a lot about people's relationships very rapidly Mandler mentioned about filming with the real-life couples. "And what I learned was that these three couples have wonderful relationships. They just have a lot of fun with each other and as a crowd. They absolutely love being playful and not taking themselves also seriously. All a persons vision that the world puts on well known people group kind of disappears as soon as you have good people who love being around each other. And that's what you really feel, is a lot of love along with a lot of that energy."

The director added that his preference scenes to shoot were the vignettes of each couple: Priyanka stripping for Nick, the "cat-and-mouse" dynamic between Danielle and Kevin, and the bondage scene with Sophie and Joe. Which brings us to...

Joe really was all tied up

"Full, Japanese-style, erotic bondage," Mandler described the scene, which involved a tied-up Joe hanging from the ceiling as his fiancée watched with devilish amusement. He was up there for "probably 25, 30 minutes — enough to leave the marks," the director added. "There's a playfulness between the two of these them that I thought could be nice and unexpected."

Dogs and bunnies weren't the only animals originally meant for the vid

"Sucker" features the ladies surrounded by bunnies and Danielle walking a pack of corgis, however the original treatment also included camels. "We had two camels we were going to use," Mandler revealed. "We just wanted to mix the exotic into it, however it didn't work out due to the weather."

The family member that bathes with each other, stays together

Speaking about those memorable outside bath scenes, Mandler mentioned, "I wanted to do this idea of six people living like one big family member and this categorize kind of funny take on something that's very usual and traditional: taking a bath. And then we noticed these royal gardens and we determined we should do it out there." It was a cold day, he admitted, however don't worry: "The baths were hot!"

Kevin understands his way around a sword

The oldest JoBro is a gentleman of several talents, as he proved in the fencing scene. "That was him. He fenced in high school," Mandler dished. "We had some stand-ins, however he mentioned he wanted to do it."

Nick really did work out on set

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The zany styles worn by the three females were something to behold — the director says they aimed for "haute couture, over-the-top style, totally foolish, as far as we can go." And although the guys' looks were a little bit far less dramatic, they still attempted to keep themselves looking sharp — which is perhaps why Nick was doing push-ups between scenes. "Ah, people like to look good as soon as they're wearing sleeveless shirts," Mandler laughed. "Why not?!"

It was something of a miracle that nothing leaked from the set

The band's reunion is already one of the primary pop culture moments of the year, and sustaining a level of privacy and discretion while shooting the "Sucker" video was a monumental task.

"We did it very speedily Mandler mentioned about the assignments tight turnaround. "We shot it two as well as 1/2 weeks prior and we were in back of a lot of barriers and walls. Either way, I thought for sure that we were going to get photo leaks, yet it didn't happen. I was very surprised, to be fair. I'd seen drones and helicopters and tall ladders and anything you can imagine, and I really was surprised that nothing came out. We got lucky, I guess."

That portrait in the final scene actually exists

The guys snuck one of their old album covers into the video as a little bit easter egg — they shared a peek of it on Instagram — and that inspired the final scene, in which the three couples pose for a new pic.

"We wanted to redesign a new family member portrait, which is what you visualize at the end," Mandler explained. "And order kind of in response to that, they threw out the idea about doing an old family member portrait, like a previous record cover portrait."

Mandler added that the in-progress portrait was an actual painting they had done, nevertheless he doesn't know where the finished segment of art is. "I don't know. It's in their archives, I assume," he mentioned. Here's hoping the guys share a look at it one day!