Taylor Swift has big dreams as a filmmaker.
During a screening of All Too Well: The Short Film held at the Beacon Theater in New York City as part of the 2022 Tribeca Festival, Swift spoke about overcoming “imposter syndrome” as a music video director and revealed she’d like to write and direct a full-length feature film in the future.
Speaking to filmmaker Mike Mills, the 32-year-old singer songwriter opened up about her experience venturing into directing with music videos like “The Man,” “Cardigan,” and “Willow,” and how it led to the creation of All Too Well: The Short Film, which she wrote and directed.
“I was always very curious. I was always looking, and learning, and trying to absorb as much as I possibly could,” she remarked. “A few music videos [into my career], I just started going into the edit, and making changes.
“It started with meddling, and it went from meddling with the edit to then writing the treatments for the music videos… That was almost ten years ago,” recalled Swift, noting that she’d often conceptualize her own music videos before handing the work off to a seasoned director — until 2019’s “The Man.”
After writing its video treatment, Taylor Swift attempted to hire a female director, but none that she knew were available: “All my favorite female directors were booked and busy, which is great. We love that.”
Swift was filming 2020’s Miss Americana documentary at the time, received advice from its director, Lana Wilson, and ended up directing “The Man” herself, which sparked a new creative desire for the singer songwriter. “Once I started directing music videos, I didn’t not want to do it.”
However, she had to overcome self doubt before officially considering herself a director. “I think I had this imposter syndrome in my head saying, ‘No, you don’t do that. Other people do that who went to school to [direct],'” explained Swift.