Turns out, Taylor Swift could’ve made her big-screen debut before she starred in 2010’s “Valentine’s Day.” According to “Twilight: New Moon” director Chris Weitz, the pop star would’ve added the sequel to her acting résumé had he not passed on her agent’s request for her to appear in the film.
“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 because she’s a Twihard. She will be someone at the cafeteria, or the diner or whatever. But she just wants to be in this movie,'” Weitz recalled during an episode of the “The Twilight Effect” podcast hosted by Melanie Howe and franchise alum Ashley Greene.
The director said passing on Swift was the “hardest thing [he] had to do” because he felt her star status would’ve been too distracting for people watching the film. ” . . . The moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen, for about five minutes, nobody is going to be able to process anything,” Weitz explained of his decision. “I kick myself for it, too, because I was like, ‘Wow, I could’ve been hanging out with Taylor Swift’ . . . She must have been like, ‘Who is this jerk?’ But sometimes you make decisions thinking this is for the best of the film.”
Swift, of course, also famously dated Twilight alum Taylor Lautner in 2009.
The missed opportunity didn’t seem to affect Swift’s acting career, as she’s set to star in “Amsterdam,” which hits theaters Nov. 4, next to big names like Margot Robbie, Christian Bale, John David Washington, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, and Robert De Niro. The Grammy-winning singer previously appeared in films like “Cats,” “The Lorax,” and “The Giver.” Swift is also on track to maybe nab her first Oscar nomination for “All Too Well: The Short Film,” which is eligible for the 2023 award ceremony.