Taylor Swift talks about his dreams of making a feature film
After his short film director debut earlier this year, Swift takes “baby step” to manufacturing a feature film.
Watch: Taylor Swift’s Midnights
What movies did you like growing up and what Do film images still accompany you as a musician?
I think it fluctuated over time. I’ve always really liked certain films during certain phases in which I was musically. I made an album called 1989 and I was watching John Hughes movies. I watched Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club all the time, over and over… The Shape Of Water is One of my favourite movies.
So for my file [Evermore], I kept watching Sense and Sensibility, the one by Ang Lee with Kate Winslet. But with this one [her directorial debut for All Too Well: The Short Film] … there’s this period in the ’70s, where you started seeing these romantic movies where these two characters are so beautifully, intimately woven together, and then they untie the braid right in front of you, and you can’t believe it.
Like The Way We Were and Love Story, Kramer vs. Kramer… In terms of modern movies that I loved, that probably lent itself to making this movie. I would say Marriage story – really upsetting for months I was not well [laughs].
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Are there any female directors in particular who have inspired your vision?
Oh, sure. Nora Ephron, as writer/director. I like Chloe Zhao. I love Greta Gerwig. I love Lena Dunham.
There are so many people that I adore who make films in such a brave, daring and inspiring way. And these are women that I look up to and admire, and have sometimes been lucky enough to be in a room with.
So will feature films be next?
If it was the right thing, it would be such a privilege and an honor. And I also just want to say that I’m aware that I’m in an incredibly privileged place to have been able to independently fund this short.
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Finally, we talk about your film work, but you do you still have your music career, of course?
Last time I checked! [laughs] Yeah, I like that. I have indeed my musical career.
How much of the visual side do you think, be it movies or music videos, will take up your time and creativity?
I have a lot of bandwidth to put into creative things. I am exhausted by the things in life, but they are never creative things.
I love doing stuff. For the last five or six years, I’ve just said, ‘I love doing stuff.
I just never want to do anything but do stuff. So I just hope that it continues. I am so lucky to be supported by kind, generous, kind and caring people who seem to care about me about the stuff I do.
I will keep working hard to try my best, all that. And yeah, I would absolutely love to grow in terms of filmmaking and storytelling. This is a natural extension of my writing, I really feel it.