In Maroon 5's brand-new "One More Night" video, frontman Adam Levine plays a boxer who takes a licking both in and out of the ring. And while one aspect of his performance was all acting (that would be his scenes with actress Minka Kelly), the other was very real indeed.
That's according to "One More Night" director Peter Berg, who sat down with MTV News to talk about the clip ahead of its debut — tonight (June 25) at 7:53 p.m. on MTV as part of "MTV First: Maroon 5" — and made it very clear that Levine pulled no punches during the filming. In fact, he even took a couple punches from one of the best in the business.
"Adam Levine learned how to box here, at the world-famous Wild Card Boxing Gym, home of Manny Pacquiao and [trainer] Freddie Roach," Berg said. "The idea for the video was Adam's. He called me and said, 'I wrote this treatment. Would you read it?' He had this idea, sort of comparing fighting to love, and so I called Freddie, who was a friend of mine, and I said, 'I need you to train this guy.' "
"Of course, Freddie was working Manny Pacquiao at the time [for this month's bout against Tim Bradley], so we had to find one of his trainers, and so we found this great trainer and put him through a 10-day boxing program," he continued. "And the truth is, this kid is just a natural athlete. He took to it very quickly, and we were able to get into sparring scenarios in the ring. ... We had to see how Adam would react to somebody punching him in the face, whether he'd run out screaming and call his bodyguards. But I remember the first time he got cracked in the head, he had a big smile on his face."
Levine definitely wasn't smiling through his scenes with Kelly, who plays the mother of his newborn child. We won't spoil how their relationship plays out, but let's just say she doesn't think his boxing career is going to succeed anytime soon. Though, as Berg explained, shooting those scenes was about as tough as the "One More Night" video got, because from the first sparring session to the final edit, he was definitely feeling the love on this one.
"Minka's a fan of Maroon 5 and she said she'd do it, and we had a great time shooting the video," he said. "I was always a Maroon 5 fan, and now they're in my heart and they're a part of my family."
Don't miss the premiere of Maroon 5's "One More Night" video during "MTV First: Maroon 5" tonight at 7:53 p.m. on MTV, followed by a 30-minute Q&A with the band on MTV.com.