“The first time I was asked to do the Beyonce video it was for a song called Irreplaceable and my first instinct was like, ‘Absolutely, just play the song’, and so they played the song and I was like, Could you play that one more time please?'” he told Live with Kelly on Wednesday (09Nov16). “I was like, ‘No, I can’t do it. I’m not available’.”It was a song about a woman kicking her man out of her house and he was a jerk… and he deserved it. On top of that (the hook) ‘to the left, to the left’ was so catchy I was like, ‘I don’t want to be associated with that for the rest of my career’. You know, that I’m like the ‘to the left guy’.”
Beyonce subsequently asked him to play her love interest in the video for her hit song Halo and Ealy admits he was thrilled to get a second chance to act opposite the singer, even though he found it difficult to concentrate while filming.
“It was a great experience, it was great meeting her and her mom and everybody else,” he added. “You know what was crazy, actually in the video she was like (really) close (to my face) and singing. Like she was lip syncing sometimes and sometimes she would actually sing and it was so hard to stay in character at that point because she’s singing to you. (It was like), ‘Stop singing please. Please just lip sync because it’s too much. It really is’. (But) it was a wonderful experience.”