As you probably know — because who knows how many times you’ve watched it since then — Dylan O’Brien stars in the video.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dylan revealed all about what it was like to work with Taylor as she sat in the director’s chair.
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Dylan revealed that Taylor had thought specifically of him for the role. I woke up one day with a text from my manager saying, “Taylor Swift’s manager is asking if she can reach out to you about a project,” he recalled.
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“And then I gave her my number, and not even an hour later, I got this iconic fucking text from her that was so long and so funny and really, really thoughtful. And it was a full pitch of what she wanted to do. It was awesome.”
As for the dialogue in the film that we couldn’t hear, it turns out that all of it was improvised.
“We were just fully in it at that point,” he said while talking about the improvisational style they shot in, “and we played out these scenes, particularly the dramatic ones, like the breakup scene or the fight scene in the kitchen.”
About that kitchen scene: Turns out Taylor came up with the idea to stop the music to let the dialogue play out.
“After we did just one take of the kitchen scene, she came over and she was like, ‘This is it. I’m going to use this dialogue. We’re going to let this play. You’re right in the pocket. Let’s just do it again.'”
“And that is such a testament to her instincts as a director, which I found super impressive. She’s so confident in what she wants, and she comes in really prepped.”
Read the entire interview here.
