Taylor Swift Says She's Done Taking Baby Steps As A Director
Taylor Swift may largely be known for her music, but the Grammy-winning artist has been known to dabble in film from time to time. She made her film debut way back in 2010 in the ensemble film Valentine’s Day. And more recently, the actress also joined the all-star cast of Cats (which became a huge box office fail).
At the same time, Swift has also been keen to step behind the camera. And as it turns out, it’s something that the singer is looking forward to doing more and more.
Taylor Swift Started Directing ‘Out Of Necessity’
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Taylor Swift accepts at an award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2022
Now, Swift may have been credited as a director for several of her music videos over the years. But it was only when it came to her track The Man that the singer found herself directing solo for the first time. And as it turns out, it wasn’t something she had intended to do. Instead, the singer was left with no choice.
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“This actually came out of necessity. I was writing my videos for years, and I had a video that was a very specific concept, which was that I wanted to be prosthetically turned into a man and live my life as a man, and I wanted a female director to direct it, and the few that I reached out to were fortunately booked. You know, we like it when women work,” Swift told Martin McDonagh during a conversation for Variety’s Directors on Directors.
“But none of the female directors that I wanted to direct it could do it, so I was like, ‘Well, I could do it, maybe?’ And then, when I did direct, I just thought, this is actually more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined.”
Since Then, Taylor Has Directed More Music Videos And A Short Film
After working on The Man, Swift has gone on to direct her other music videos, including the ones for Cardigan, The Best Day, and Anti-Hero. The singer also recently directed the music video for her track Bejeweled, which starred Hollywood A-lister Laura Dern.
And when it came to landing the Oscar winner, it turns out all Swift had to do was ask. “I was like, 'Oscar winner Laura Dern, hello. I've written a script,’” the singer recalled while on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“‘It's a one-scene script in which you are going to call me 'a tired, tacky wench' and she was like, 'I'm down.’”
As for Dern, the veteran actress was eager to work with Swift the moment she called. “Even better is when she’s speaking to you on the phone, asking you if there’s any way you could possibly be willing to say these words to her,” Dern remarked.
“Preceding the script, we were just talking on the phone about ideas, she’s like, ‘What if you called me …' I’m like, I’m in, definitely doing this.”
At the same time, Swift also won critical acclaim following the release of the short film version of her song All Too Well, which the singer brought to the Toronto International Film Festival. And as it turns out, it was a project that Swift had been working on for a decade.
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“I needed 10 years of retrospect in order to know what I would even make to to tell a version of that story visually,” the singer explained.
“And I’m so grateful that I was able to do that with some crazy stroke of all these different twists of fate.”
Since Then, Taylor Swift Says She Is Taking ‘Baby Steps’ To Directing
Following the success of her short film, Swift is eager to get back to the director’s chair although the singer isn’t looking to direct multiple projects at once. “I’d love to keep taking baby steps forward,” she said.
That said, Swift also acknowledged that her next “baby step” may be more of a leap.
“And I think that I’m at a place now where the next baby step is not a baby step. It would be committing to making a film,” the singer continued.
“And I feel like I would just absolutely love for the right opportunity to arise because I just absolutely, absolutely adore telling stories this way.”
The Singer Is Set To Make Her Feature Film Directorial Debut
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Taylor Swift holds 'Tribeca Talks' With Taylor Swift at the Tribeca Film Festival
And as it turns out, Swift is set to tackle her first feature film. The singer is collaborating with Searchlight Pictures on an original script that she’s already written, although details surrounding the plot and the cast are currently being kept under wraps.
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“Taylor is a once in a generation artist and storyteller,” Searchlight presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield said in a statement to Variety. “It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey.”
Searchlight Pictures, formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is known for Oscar-winning films such as Black Swan, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water, and Nomadland. Most recently, it released The Menu, Empire of Light, and McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.
