The music video or "Too Little Too Late" was directed by Chris Robinson, who JoJo claims had always been her first choice to direct the project; the idea to incorporate sports into the video originated from Robinson. Before deciding on soccer, which JoJo identified as one of her favorite sports, she had considered featuring American football in the video until Robinson convinced her that soccer would appeal to a more international audience due to being "the biggest sport in the world." JoJo was dating soccer player Freddy Adu at the time. Her relationship with Adu, combined with the fact that the 2006 FIFA World Cup was approaching, are believed to have inspired the music video's theme, The video was filmed in spring 2006 during the playoffs. JoJo had decided against casting a professional actor or model as her love interest in the music video, feeling that hiring an untrained performer would offer "more of a real feel to the video". Professional soccer player Mike Zaher, junior defender of the UCLA Bruins, was cast as JoJo's boyfriend David in the music video. 21 years-old and a sophomore at the University of California, Los Angeles at the time, Zaher learned that an unnamed celebrity and her film crew would be filming his team, the UCLA Bruins, practicing soccer from coach Jorge Salcedo; the teammates had initially been told that they would be involved in an upcoming music video for actress Lindsay Lohan, and JoJo's identity was not revealed until after the team had been brought to a studio, where the project was further explained to them. The athletes found the process quite enjoyable and not as "uptight and intense as they thought it might be at first". After soccer practice, a casting director invited Zaher to remain on set later to read a few lines into the camera. Although he still had little to no idea about what the project was, he was given the impression that the producer might like him. Afterward, Zaher learned that he was competing against other actors for the male lead but he had the support of JoJo herself. The following day, the director informed Zaher that JoJo had personally selected him to play the role of her boyfriend in the video.