 The music video for " I Wanna Go " was directed by Chris Marrs Piliero and filmed in Los Angeles , California . Spears first contacted Piliero and asked him to put together a concept for the video . The main idea for Marrs Piliero came from the lyric " be a little inappropriate " , which stood out for him , but he did not want to make a video about sexual inappropriateness . Piliero wrote the opening press conference scene as a tribute to the film Half Baked ( 1998 ) , which he is a fan of . He explained , " That scene resonates with everyone as the epitome of the greatest way to quit your job , and just blow people off . [ ... ] I felt like that would just be such a perfect way for her to tell the reporters to eff off . " Marrs Piliero first asked actor Kellan Lutz to co @-@ star the clip with Spears ; however , Lutz turned down the role , saying that " there were a couple of weird things about the part that didn 't make sense " , including the scene where he was going to pour milk on himself . Piliero then thought of asking one of the stars of Half Baked , Guillermo Díaz , to be part of the video , explaining that it " would make it come full circle . " Piliero watched all of Spears ' videos and wanted to pull what he loved from them , but also give it something fresh . Piliero felt that all of her references to the paparazzi in her previous videos had been more of a statement than an action , and for " I Wanna Go " , he wanted her to have the opportunity to fight back . 
