Taylor Swift's Directorial Career Started Out Of 'Necessity'

Taylor Swift and Martin McDonagh are birds of the same feather. Or so Variety would have you believe based on their decision to pair these two together for the yearly "Directors on Directors" series. And maybe they're onto something, here: I'm sure that if we really put our galaxy brains to work, we can probably draw some parallels between McDonagh's "Banshees of Inisherin" and Swift's "All Too Well" short film. For instance, both are breakup films! Both of them include scenic journeys through a gorgeous landscape as the backdrop for someone's emotional crisis!

Speaking of similarities, Taylor Swift is now on track to become one of McDonagh's contemporaries in the world of film directing. The singer-songwriter is set to make her feature directorial debut with a film produced by Searchlight Pictures.

Though she's provided zero details about the story or the specifics of the production, her chat with McDonagh does offer some insight into her decision to direct. "I always wanted to tell stories. I have always written stories, poetry songs," Swift shares in the Variety video. "I think this just kind of grew out of a natural extension of that storytelling."

Taylor Swift made her first foray into the world of directing way back in 2010, when she co-directed the music video for her song "Mine" with Roman White. Her first solo-directed music video came years later, with 2019's "The Man," an effort that earned her an MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction. In the Variety conversation, Swift explains that she didn't initially plan to direct "The Man" herself. Taking on that role came from a place of "necessity":

"I wanted a female director to direct it. And the few that I reached out to were, fortunately, booked. You know, we like it when women work, but none of the female directors that I wanted to direct could do it. So I was like, 'Well, I could do it, maybe?' And then when I did direct, I just thought, 'This is actually more fulfilling than I ever could have imagined.'"

From there, she continued working her way up, directing more music videos throughout the years — including the recent Cinderella-inspired "Bejeweled," which features the HAIM sisters and yes, cultural icon Laura Dern. So after moving up to the realm of a short film, the next natural step was a full-fledged feature film. Until we get to see it for ourselves, this leaves the masses to wonder: what kind of movie will Taylor Swift direct?

Full disclosure — I'm a bit biased in Swift's favor (she was on my Spotify wrapped and everything). After a career based around being "the voice of a generation," the idea of her crafting a film is pretty exciting. Will it be a fantastical adventure in the vein of her most recent music videos ("Willow," "Bejeweled, etc)? That would certainly explain her budding friendship with Guillermo Del Toro. Or maybe something of the heartbreaking coming-of-age variety, like "All Too Well"? Whichever way it goes, it's nice to know that unlike her previous entries into the Hollywood world (a lineup that unfortunately includes titles like "Valentine's Day," "The Giver," "Cats," and "Amsterdam") this one will be from her own mind.

Musically, Swift has always been the kind of artist that enjoys testing her limits and exploring new territory. She migrated from country to pop to the sad-girl-stylings of whatever genre "folklore" counts as. Why should the rest of her artistry be any different? It makes sense that after early two decades as a singer-songwriter, she's interested in exploring a new medium. /Film's Ryan Scott has already beat me to the punch and made the case for the short film that she's currently on the campaign trail for, rightfully dubbing "All Too Well" a "gorgeous, devastating, affective piece of filmmaking." So allow me to jump on the bandwagon and say that if you want a sense of her artistic sensibilities, that's the place to go. The song is a crucial part of her discography and, given this new career trajectory, her stint in the director's chair is obviously pretty pivotal too.