Taylor Swift missed out on a pretty crazy movie cameo, and we need a moment to process what we’ve missed out on.
She may have appeared on screen in TV shows like CSI and New Girl, as well as star-studded 2010 romcom Valentine’s Day, but the pop icon could’ve appeared onscreen a huge part of Noughties film culture: Twilight.
Chris Weitz, director of The Twilight Saga: New Moon – starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, and the second in five films devoted to the hit books – has confirmed that the film almost had a Taylor Swift cameo.
In a recent interview on The Twilight Effect, a podcast hosted by actress and Twilight star Ashley Greene, he opened up about his decision to ultimately turn Taylor down when her agent came calling.
“Taylor Swift and I had the same agent at the time, and he said, ‘Taylor would like to be in this movie — not because of you, but she’s a Twi-hard,'” Weitz said.
It turns out Swift wasn’t even going for screen time here, she just wanted to be part of the vampire universe that we were all, admittedly, obsessed with at that time.
Her agent reportedly told Weitz: “‘She will be someone at the cafeteria, or the diner, or whatever, but she just wants to be in this movie.'”
Alas, it wasn’t to be. The New Moon director decided that ultimately, having such a star appear in the background of the movie was likely to draw focus.
“The hardest thing for me was to be like, ‘The moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen for about five minutes, nobody is going to be able to process anything,'” he said.
She is a complete show-stealing queen in the absolute best way, so we see the logic. But that doesn’t mean Weitz doesn’t hold some level of regret at his decision.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I could have been, like, hanging out with Taylor Swift, and maybe we could’ve been friends or something,'” he said, also expressing concern he may have offended the star by turning her down.
“She must’ve just been like, ‘Who is this jerk who would say no?’ But sometimes, you make decisions and you go, ‘This is for the best of the film'”.
Oh, what could’ve been!