Changes

[[Mark Romanek]], who also directed "[[Closer]]"," directed the [[Nine Inch Nails music videos|music video]] for "The Perfect Drug" in 1997. It was one of the most expensive videos at the time, costing over $850,000 to make. Two sets were built and numerous props were involved.[http://www.nin-pages.de/perfect_drug_video_quelle.htm]

The concept of the video is widely interpreted as Trent Reznor portraying a man mourning the death of a child and detaching himself from reality through absinthe. [[Charlie Clouser]], [[Danny Lohner]], and [[Chris Vrenna]] appear in the video, most notably playing string instruments at the beginning of the video. The aesthetics were heavily influenced by the illustrations of 20th-century artist Edward Gorey (1925–2000), the most obvious reference coming from the girl sitting on the cushion in front of the painting. The entire video was filmed with a blue tint with the exception of the drum breakdown, which uses flashing green light instead, representing Reznor losing himself in the absinthe.

The entire video was filmed with In a blue tint with 2025 post to Instagram, following the exception death of ''Lost Highway'' director [[David Lynch]], Romanek posted the drum breakdownfollowing:<blockquote>David really liked the "Closer" video, which uses flashing green light insteadof course blew my mind, representing which led him to ask me to direct a video for a Trent Reznor losing himself song that was gonna appear on the LOST HIGHWAY soundtrack (one of my all-time favorite films of his, especially all the Robert Blake scenes). I asked him if he wanted to have scenes from the movie in the absinthemusic-video.<br>David, one eye asquint from his own stinging cigarette smoke, croaked, "Fuck no!! That would ruin the whole fuckin' thing!"<br>Much to the studio's displeasure, I should add.</blockquote>