Taylor Swift let fans sneak a peak into her creative process as a director in newly released “All Too Well: The Short Film” behind-the-scenes footage.
The short film and longer music video, set to the extended version of Swift’s popular ballad from the album “Red,” released last fall with the release of “Red (Taylor’s Version).
Swift’s eagerness as a director shines through as she instructs stars Dylan O’Brien (“Not Okay,” “Teen Wolf”) and Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things,” “The Whale”), through memorable scenes like the “f— the patriarchy” key toss scene and the 21st birthday cake scene.
“We should always see a falseness to your smile,” Swift instructs Sink during the birthday scene. “It should be contrasted by how real your smile in the last shot was.”
Sink portrays the Her to Dylan O’Brien’s Him in the short film, and at the end of the film, Swift appears as the older version of Her, complete with red hair to match Sink’s. The song is said to be inspired by Swift’s past relationship with actor Jake Gyllenhaal.
“We’re watching a person lose an element of innocence and naïveté. We’re watching her figure out how to turn it into something beautiful,” Swift says toward the end of the released footage. “In the older Her, there’s a stillness and a stoicism and a seriousness and a stillness – but a sadness.
“She’s fine, but she’s not who we met,” the singer added. “It’s just sort of one of those things of like, what’s lost and what’s found. We’re watching a person come of age.”
Swift screened the short film at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and it has since been deemed eligible for Oscar consideration in the narrative shorts categories.
Watch the behind-the-scenes clip in the video above, and you can watch the full film below.