During an interview at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Taylor Swift talked about some of the films and filmmakers who have inspired her own work as an artist.
One of the names she mentioned was Academy Award winner Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water). Swift explained how during the pandemic, she found herself watching a lot of movies and came across two of del Toro’s films that she had never seen before.
“I remember watching two Guillermo del Toro movies back to back – The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth,” Swift said. “My whole world turned into folktales and forests and mythical creatures. I was so dazzled by those films. Obviously, The Shape of Water is one of my favorite films ever. But I hadn’t seen those two very pinnacle films in his repertoire. You end up with me telling stories from other people’s perspectives.”
In 2020, Swift released her eighth studio album, Folklore, which she described at that time as “a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness” and also mentioned del Toro’s work as inspiration.
Swift was at TIFF to premiere a short film she wrote and directed, All Too Well, based on her song of the same name from her 2012 album, Red. The film stars Swift, Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), and Dylan O’Brien (Teen Wolf).
Although Swift also named several other films that have inspired her during the TIFF interview, Latine cinephiles latched onto her name dropping the Mexican director.
We can’t wait to see what Taylor Swift thinks about his next two projects for Netflix – the anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities and the animated film Pinocchio. If she likes them, maybe Guillermo del Toro will become a Swiftie.