Background The video was filmed in May 2010. Levine stated to MTV News that the song's music video, directed by
Joseph Kahn, focuses on
violence, rather than sex, where the female decides to
assault,
assassinate,
kill,
rape,
maim,
humiliate, injure, and bruise her own
significant other. The music video stars Russian model
Anne Vyalitsyna (Levine's girlfriend at the time). The various members of the band appear as bystanders or passersby who get variously hit by cars, etc., as they wind up becoming casualties of the female lead's violence towards Levine's character. The video premiered on July 1, 2010, on
MTV and
VH1. The UK version of the video was released on August 11, 2010, also co-directed by Kahn with Don Tyler did with the animation. Tyler would later direct with the band's "Hands All Over" music video. This version censored the majority of the violence with cartoon-like graphics, and adds shots of the band (wearing the same outfits as they do in the rest of the video). Levine told MTV News about the Joseph Kahn-directed video. "The cool thing is, when Joseph wrote the treatment after reading a few sentences, I thought it was really amazing," he said. "Because it kind of turns the whole idea of the sexual energy between two people – a guy and a girl, a music video, you've seen that a million times – that exists in this video, but it's turning it on its ass and having the girl be the more domineering one who's trying to kill me." Levine admitted to MTV News: "I'll tell you a little secret... the stuntmen were so great, but they probably weren't too happy because they had to dress like us for the video, which was hilarious, because we aren't the most masculine dressers. This dude who was
keyboardist Jesse Carmichael's stunt double was, like, really buff, and he has Jesse's little low-top Converse and skinny jeans on. The shoes were, like, falling off his massive ankles." Levine added: "I did a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff is me! But most of it wasn't very dangerous. Although, by the end of the day, even not being hit by things is such a physical thing that I was really kind of beat up. I was like, 'Man, even thinking I got my ass kicked feels like getting my ass kicked.'"
Reception Robbie Daw from
Idolator called director Joseph Kahn a "visual maestro".
MTV Buzzworthy also reviewed the video positively, saying: "Adam Levine and model Anne Vyalitsyna make a love-hate relationship look so sexy in Maroon 5's new video, "Misery". == Live performances ==