Why I’m Counting On Taylor Swift’s Movie Director Era Someday

With Taylor Swift’s tenth album, Midnights, out in the world now, the singer has not only brought fans more clever, relatable and catchy songs, but a continued relationship with being the writer and director of her own music videos. Her most recent viral visual, Bejeweled, is the tenth project she’s been behind the camera for and what I believe to be the beginning of a burgeoning movie director’s discography. That’s right, I’m counting on a future Taylor Swift movie director era because girlie can’t stop and won’t stop outdoing herself. 

While songwriting will clearly always be Taylor Swift’s number one passion, and she’s had to have put in her 10,000 hours there, as the pop star has evolved as an artist over 15 years, having spent all that time as a fan of hers, it also seems to me like she’s beginning an affair with expressing herself through the medium of filmmaking. Here’s why I’m betting on Taylor Swift moving into more work in Hollywood (aside from her few movie performances here and there thus far): 

She’s Already A Talented Director 

First off, Taylor Swift has already made it known she has ambitions to direct movies, and if she says she’s going to do something, she’s going to do it. Aside from providing visuals to her music through music videos, it feels like All Too Well: The Short Film is the project where Swift made her first attempt at moviemaking. The short was met with massive acclaim, and while at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Swift said this when asked if she’d be interested in making a feature film (via Variety): 

In All Too Well, Taylor Swift recruited The Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien and Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink to play a couple in a short romantic drama about a coming-of-age love story turned sour, with a highlight kitchen fight scene between the actors sending chills down many spines. Swift adapted the lyrics of her song “All Too Well” into a greater concept of lost love that spans 13 years and ends in the once-young woman catching a glimpse of her ex as she becomes a bestselling author and he wears the scarf she once abandoned. With All Too Well and the singer’s more traditional music videos, including the recent Anti-Hero music video, she’s established herself as a gifted director already, it’s only a matter of time before she does her own feature. 

Taylor Swift Has Been Telling More Stories Outside Herself 

Most of Taylor Swift’s career has revolved around her telling her own stories through song to a massive fanbase, but has often resulted in a ton of public drama and discourse, usually regarding who she’s dating or is no longer in a relationship with. However, in 2020, Swift took the spotlight off her own life to tell folklore and evermore, two quarantine albums that are greatly about fictional characters Swift made up and wrote songs about rather than drawing on her actual life. 

Within folklore, as we learned in her Disney+ concert film, Swift created a “teenage love triangle” and wrote songs from all their perspectives, with lengthy backstories for all of them among other characters she created for those albums. Seeing Taylor Swift’s career progress over the years, folklore and evermore is my personal favorite projects the artist has ever done, and I can absolutely see why she found inspiration outside herself for those works. Following those albums, I think Taylor Swift will want to return to creating ideas from scratch rather than doing every one of her projects with her own life at the center. This could also happen through her own movies, perhaps even adapting some of her own characters in her music. 

Her Growing Network Of Hollywood Friends 

Also, can we talk about how many friends Taylor Swift has who are in the Hollywood community? For Midnights alone, The Batman’s Zoë Kravitz wrote “Lavender Haze” with the singer, and Dylan O’Brien ended up doing the drums on “Snow on the Beach” purely for hanging out in the studio with her that day. Then, Laura Dern and the Haim sisters turn up in Bejeweled. Add that with other talents she hangs out with, like Selena Gomez, Emma Stone, Cara Delevingne and couple Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds (whose kids' names were inspirations for folklore), and you already have an impressive pick for a cast. 

Taylor Swift has a real knack for bringing big names together for her visions and that would prove to be a superpower as a movie director too. It feels as though she’d have her pick of talent if she decided to put something together. Plus, I figure if so much of your circle is in Hollywood, not only at some point will an idea strike within the industry, but she’ll have such a large support system of people with experience in moviemaking that she’d likely turn up with something great. 

All The Best Filmmakers Are As Intentional As Taylor Swift Is

Let me tell you something else about Ms. Swift, girl thinks of everything. Her latest Bejeweled music video was ridden with cameos and easter eggs, as with many of her videos. She’s basically Marvel Cinematic Universe status when it comes to hinting at things (maybe even better) and that’s something that would only fondly carry over as a filmmaker. My favorite types of movies are those with intention – the kind of movie that knows what it is and goes for it all the way. That’s the type of artist Taylor Swift has proven to be over the years, and I think this part of her creativity would carry over well into being a filmmaker. 

All this being said, I don’t necessarily see the singer having her filmmaker era tomorrow. Taylor Swift’s upcoming music is plenty for now, from rolling out more from her Midnights era, delivering on all her re-release albums and finally touring after being away from the stage for big shows for the past three years. Maybe this is five, 15 or 30 years from now, but regardless, I’m counting on Taylor Swift’s movie director era. I'm absolutely convinced it's happening!