Is Britney Spears' 'Work Bitch' video too sexual? Director weighs in

No need to call in Sinead O’Connor: It seems like Britney Spears is the only one to blame for her overtly sexual new music video, according to one director.

After Spears released her “Work Bitch” clip, the pop princess called into Boston’s TJ AMP radio morning show and said she felt there was a little too much skin in the video. Spears said she had to step in and make an executive decision to not use the first cut.

“Oh my god, we showed way more skin and did way more stuff for the video than what is actually there,” Spears said. “Like, I cut out half the video because I am a mother and because, you know, I have children, and it’s just hard to play sexy mom while you’re being a pop star as well. I just have to be true to myself and feel it out when I do stuff.”

While Spears has always had sexy videos, she finds herself longing for the way things were. “A lot of sex goes into what I do,” she continued. “But sometimes I would like to bring it back to the old days when there was, like, one outfit through the whole video, and you’re dancing the whole video, and there’s like not that much sex stuff going on.”

However, Ben Mor, the director behind “Work Bitch,” said creative control is all in the hands of the artist.

“I don’t know if it’s being misinterpreted or not, but Britney’s in control of every aspect of the video, from the concepts to the setups to everything,” Mor told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s nothing that we shot that she didn’t approve of. As far as the edit, you can always make it a little more racy, because we had scantily clad people on set. It’s just an editorial choice, and I always tend to go sexy anyway, so that was my choice. I think she just wanted it to be more dance-centric.”

So when does Britney’s say come in? “My cut was a lot racier for sure, but it didn’t necessarily involve Britney,” Mor added. “It was really just cutaways. An artist knows how they perceive themselves. I promise you 100 percent: All of these artists are in charge of their content. No one is forcing anyone to do anything that they don’t want to do, and they’re very well aware of that. They might change their mind after the fact, but Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, and Britney Spears are all very much in control of their image. Things don’t just happen. Everything is scrutinized.”