The singer gets candid about her participation in the 'weird-a** movie.'
Taylor Swift doesn’t care if Cats wasn't a hit like many expected it to be.
Known as one of the biggest flops of 2019, what should have been an epic film for most turned out to be less-than-impressive for many, per critics and fans. The reviews, however, don't bother the 30-year-old singer, who said she had a "great time" working on the "weird-a** movie" and co-writing "Beautiful Ghosts" with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
"I had a really great time working on that weird-a** movie. I’m not gonna retroactively decide that it wasn’t the best experience," she tells Variety in a new interview published on Tuesday. "I never would have met Andrew Lloyd Webber or gotten to see how he works, and now he’s my buddy. I got to work with the sickest dancers and performers. No complaints."
The singer's track for the musical was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2020 Golden Globes. As for what she thought her odds were of "Beautiful Ghost" winning the trophy, she said: "Not a shot. Not a single chance. Not a snowball's chance in hell." Sure enough, Swift and Webber did not win and the Golden Globe instead went to Elton John and Bernie Taupin's "I'm Gonna Love Me Again" from Rocketman.
The song also beat out Beyoncé's "Spirit" from The Lion King, "Into the Unknown" from Frozen II, and "Stand Up" from Harriet.
Swift, meanwhile, also gets candid about her mom's brain tumor and cancer, upcoming Netflix documentary, Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, as well as why it was important to speak out politically despite some objections from her team and family.
"This was a situation where, from a humanity perspective, and from what my moral compass was telling me I needed to do, I knew I was right, and I really didn’t care about repercussions," she shares. "My dad is terrified of threats against my safety and my life, and he has to see how many stalkers we deal with on a daily basis, and know that [I’m] his kid. It’s where he comes from."
She does admit that she was hesitant to speak out sooner because she didn't think people wanted to hear what she thought.
"Every time I didn’t speak up about politics as a young person, I was applauded for it. It was wild. I said, ‘I’m a 22-year-old girl — people don’t want to hear what I have to say about politics.’ And people would just be like, ‘Yeahhhhh!," she explains, adding that she also saw how the Dixie Chicks were exiled after Natalie Maines' comment against then-President George W. Bush.
"I saw how one comment ended such a powerful reign, and it terrified me," Swift admits. "These days, with social media, people can be so mad about something one day and then forget what they were mad about a couple weeks later. That’s fake outrage. But what happened to the Dixie Chicks was real outrage. I registered it -- that you’re always one comment away from being done being able to make music."
For more on Swift, watch below.
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