Tyler Shields once was an X Games vert skater. But now he’s skating on thin ice with his picture of Kathy Griffin holding up a “beheaded” Donald Trump.
It wasn’t their only idea, however.
Entertainment Weekly asked the photographer: You mentioned you considered several other ideas for the shoot. What were some of those ideas?
Shields replied: “We never shot any of them, but Kathy had an idea which was filling an entire bathtub full of Cheetos, which she would be nude in, and which I thought was really funny. I advised against that because I think the Cheetos would’ve probably destroyed her bathtub. I just don’t think you ever get that out. So that was one.
“I wanted to get an American flag ball gag for her, but it just didn’t look good. But, that’s part of the process. You have different ideas and sometimes they’re stupid, sometimes you never do them, and sometimes they’re great but they just don’t work in the photograph. But that’s the fun of it. The right idea always shines.”
Said Griffin — who got her start with L.A’s improv troupe Groundlings — “I’m not afraid to make a statement and I’m down to get political if you want.”
(She apologized Tuesday afternoon.)
“It wasn’t like, ‘We have to do something political.’ She’s not afraid of it and I’m not afraid of it. I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ It was, how far are you willing to go, and she was willing to go pretty far.”
Here’s how far others took the meme.