Taylor Swift first dabbled in directing when she couldn't find a freelance female director for the video for 'The Man'.
Taylor Swift Says She Never Planned To Be A Filmmaker
Last week it was announced that the singer-songwriter will direct her first feature film, which she will also write, for Searchlight Pictures. Taylor Swift is taking the next step as a director after her critically acclaimed Academy Award-eligible short film All Too Well.
For Taylor Swift, this was not a direction she initially expected her career to take.
"It actually came out of necessity," he told director Martin McDonagh ("The Banshees of Inisherin"), with whom he spoke as part of Variety's "Directors on Directors" feature.
"I've been writing my video ideas for years and I had a very specific concept that I had written for a video (for 2020's 'The Man') in which I wanted to prosthetically transform into a man and live my life as a man," explained.
It turns out that Taylor Swift originally planned to let another female director direct 'The Man'.
"And I wanted a female director to direct it. And the few I contacted were fortunately closed. We love it when women work. So I thought: "I could do it myself, maybe". And when I directed it, I thought, 'It's really more rewarding than I could have ever imagined,'" he recalled.
When asked by Martin McDonagh if it was a coincidence, Taylor Swift admitted that directing was not in her cards at first.
"It was, in a way, accidental. I think I've directed about ten music videos and now a short film. I'm just moving forward little by little and taking on more responsibilities," he said.
Taylor Swift, who has previously explained how much 'All Too Well' means to her, said she would not have been able to direct the short film if she had shot it when the song was first released on her album 'Red' in 2012.
“Back then, I had just started the process of writing music videos and I had just started using the songs as a stimulus for creative writing, but I wasn't at a point where I was ready. First of all, emotionally, I was going through exactly what the short film describes," she told Martin McDonagh.
Taylor Swift feels that "time is such an incredible asset for us when we have these stories that are hard to tell at any given moment."
"It's good if a story is hard to tell, because that means it's incredibly emotionally powerful. But it is impossible to tell it with opinion and truth if you are in it. Sometimes that amount of tension can be suffocating,” he explained.
Taylor Swift has long agreed with fans calling for a music video for "All Too Well" because she herself feels the song is "the truest depiction of heartbreak, loss and grief."
The singer also stated that the short film for 'All Too Well' benefited from being made as an adult, due to her changing mindset.
“It was so exciting going through it and being in my 30s and looking back. "Because I think there's a moment, when you're 19 or 20, when your heart is so prone to being hurt, broken, and your sense of self goes out the window so quickly," she commented.
"It's an age that shapes you, I wanted to tell this story, about adolescence turning into a wounded adult life," he added.
