“I am sure many will take the main character as being shameful of who he is, but that is not the case at all. The character isn’t shameful, but rather he is broken,” Greyson Chance says of the music video for his song “White Roses,” the midpoint of his 2019 studio album, Portraits.
It’s an important distinction to make when discussing a video concept that revolves around a character concealing all or some parts of their sexuality — a tale that was once a reality for Chance.
Directed by Bobby Hanaford and Chance himself, the music video tackles the loss and hurt involved with bursts of free expression, still limited by the confines of current relationships. Rather than have moments of abandon, like the one that occurs at the climax of the video for “White Roses,” be laced with shame, Chance is painting a picture of truly intimate rupture.
“Just like the world around them, each character in the video is likewise broken,” Chance explains, leaving no question as to the radius of impact caused by one hiding their identity from loved ones. “I am portrayed by the boy in the trailer.”