Taylor Swift on Screen: Power, Hype & Elusive Oscar Glory

On the unfortunately-punctuated “Wi$h Li$t,” does Taylor Swift give us a glimpse of her Hollywood ambitions? They want that complex female character / They want that critical smash Palme d’Or / And an Oscar on their bathroom floor / They want it all. A few lines later, Swift says she is content to settle into the suburbs with her fiancé, the football player Travis Kelce. I just want you, huh / Have a couple kids, got the whole block lookin’ like you.¹

In a conversation recorded Friday morning, I met with

Katey Rich

and

Christopher Rosen

of

The Ankler.

to talk about how Swift has fared in Hollywood. She tried and failed to secure an Oscar nomination in the short film category for All Too Well: The Short Film in 2022. That same year, Searchlight announced that she would direct a feature film from a script she’d written. (After years of no updates, it was rumored this summer that Alice Birch, a writer staffed on Succession and Normal People, was brought in for rewrites.) Swift had minor roles in Cats and Amsterdam, two movies that are better off forgotten. But both movies at least gestured toward something I’d love to see more of: Swift actually making something that has nothing to do with endlessly excavating her own lore. Lady Gaga wrestled with her own persona in A Star Is Born and came out the victor. Or what’s stopping Swift from making her own coming-of-age movie, her own Edge of Seventeen or Diary of a Teenage Girl? I would love to see what a Sophia Coppola-Taylor Swift movie looks like, or even if she went the J.Lo route and worked as a diligent producer.

We get into all that and more in this conversation, including some thoughts on “The Life of a Showgirl.” Let me apologize now for wondering aloud what it would look like if Swift worked with Emerald Fennell … some dark magic came over me … it wouldn’t be good … but it would certainly be something!

Thanks for tuning in! There’s a lively conversation about the new album in the Hung Up chat for the paid list, and I’ll have another post about the album soon.

some of my favorite moments so far

1. You already know what I’m going to say: what a downgrade from the sensitive, brutally honest “Peace!” And you know that I’d swing with you for the fences / Sit with you in the trenches / Give you my wild, give you a child…