Niall and Harry were too nervous for zero-gravity shoot, reveals Louis

Louis Tomlinson has shared a fun, previously untold detail about the making of One Direction's Drag Me Down music video.

Louis Tomlinson has shared a fun, previously untold detail about the making of One Direction’s Drag Me Down music video.

A clip of the singer has resurfaced online. In it, he looks back at the time the band filmed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. One Direction remains the only band to ever shoot a music video at the facility.

According to Tomlinson, the original concept was even bigger than what fans finally saw. The band had planned to film a segment in actual zero-gravity conditions. But the plan never made it to the screen.

The reason, Tomlinson revealed, was simple. Niall Horan got nervous about the idea.

“And he will not be too happy about me telling this but we didn’t do it cause Niall was too scared,” Tomlinson said in the clip.

The host then pushed back, asking if it was really just Niall who refused. Tomlinson didn’t let Harry Styles off the hook either. “To be fair, it was Niall and Harry to be fair,” he said, laughing.

Fans have long loved Drag Me Down for its space-age visuals. Now it turns out the video could have looked even more dramatic, had the full zero-gravity plan gone ahead.

Drag Me Down was released in 2015. It served as the lead single from One Direction’s fifth and final studio album, Made in the A.M. The music video saw all four remaining members, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne, suited up in real spacesuits. They filmed around training jets on location at the space center.

The song went on to become one of the band’s biggest global hits. It broke streaming records within hours of release. It also topped charts in multiple countries. The track later won Best Music Video at the BRIT Awards in 2016.

More than a decade later, One Direction’s fans are still discovering new layers to their favourite era. This latest story, straight from Tomlinson himself, has only added to the nostalgia surrounding the band’s space-themed video.

For many longtime fans, hearing these old memories resurface feels like a small gift. It’s a reminder of just how much creative risk-taking went into the band’s biggest moments, even the ones that never made the final cut.