Changes

[[Mark Romanek]], who also directed "[[Closer]]," directed "The Perfect Drug" in 1997. It was one of the most expensive videos at the time, costing over $850,000 to make. Building the two main sets (a refrigerated set, and a rooftop set) and commissioning the giant hand sculpture and paying a hedge designer were some of the larger expenses.[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 boy sitting on the cushion in front of the painting.