Taylor Swift Teases Desire to Direct Feature Film During TIFF Talk
The 'All Too Well' singer is ready to keep climbing.
Taylor Swift stopped by the Toronto International Film Festival, this weekend, where she revealed that she would be "honored" to direct a feature-length film, and our heads are already spinning with the possibilities.
The superstar sat down with the festival's CEO, Cameron Bailey, to answer questions from the host as well as fans, discussing re-recording her first six albums, casting her short film, her path to directing, and more.
About 10 minutes into the discussion, the conversation focused in on Swift's journey to directing through several creative endeavors. "Before you directed this film, you began to have increasing visual input into the making of your music videos," Bailey pointed out before asking Swift to discuss how she came to be drawn to the creative side of the music videos as opposed to remaining solely on camera, which Swift described as a "baby steps process."
"It wasn't like I woke up one day and I was like, 'You know what I want to do? Direct,'" she said. "That was never something that I was programmed to say to myself, because I didn't go to film school." But she has been on the set of 60+ music videos, a process that taught her a lot about, well, the process.
"I've always got my eyes and ears open," she said, which any Swiftie can attest to. "I'm always looking at shots and thinking, 'I Like that one, I don't like that one. Why and why not? I like that lighting, I don't like that lighting. Why and why not?' You know? So you kind of are learning based on your experience." And her experience working with frequent collaborator Joseph Kahn really helped her to hone in on some of those key aspects.
"He's just like a legend in music videos. He did 'Toxic' by Britney Spears, just to give you an example of what we're dealing with. We made several music videos, and we got to the point where I'd call him up and I'd be like, 'Okay, wrote this song called 'Look What You Made Me Do,' I wanna come out of the ground as a zombie, right, we're seeing my hand out of the ground and then I'm dead. And then I'm in a bathtub of diamonds, and then there's a mountain of me's trying to kill the current me,' and he'd be on the phone like, 'Yeah, I know exactly what we're doing.'"
That relationship empowered her to step up even more, and eventually, she was writing more in-depth treatments (or outlines) for her videos, putting together shot lists, and even co-directing. But it wasn't until she did it alone that she said she really learned everything.
"It was so surprising to me because I didn't really want to turn back after that. I just had so much fun—the first video I directed on my own was a video called 'The Man.'" On that set, Swift was decked out in prosthetics, playing the role of "the man," which she described as incredible, wild, and wonderful, despite the hindrance of the heavy makeup.
Not long after, Covid hit. In the middle of the "sourdough" stage, she directed the music video for "cardigan" and later "willow". "And that was when I thought, 'I feel like I could do more. I feel like I'm ready for more.' And so that was when I decided to make the short film for 'All Too Well,'" she said.
Naturally, there's still only up to go. While Swift said she can't imagine herself filming an action sequence, for example (though 'Bad Blood' would beg to differ), she's definitely down to direct an even bigger project.
"I'd love to keep taking baby steps forward," she said later in the talk. "I'm at a place now where the next baby step is like, not a baby step. It would be committing to making a film, and I feel like I would just absolutely love for the right opportunity to arise because I just, I absolutely adore telling stories this way. If it were the right thing, it would be such a privilege and an honor."
Of course, it's only just been put out into the world, but we still can't help but think about what could come next. An episode of Stranger Things or Grey's Anatomy? A movie musical? A feature film based on one of her albums?
We'll take one of each, please!
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