Taylor Swift performs during the opening night of her 'Reputation' stadium tour at University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona on May 8, 2018. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS) Taylor Swift’s reputation is getting yet another boost, this time from Mother Mary director David Lowery.
The auteur had high praise for Swift, specifically singling out her Reputation stadium tour and accompanying concert film as the inspiration behind the concert sequences he filmed for his upcoming A24 film, which stars Anne Hathaway as a larger-than-life pop star.
“Her Reputation concert film is one of the best concert films ever. It’s truly phenomenal. And for our concert sequences we looked at that repeatedly,” Lowery told Empire in a new interview published today. “You would not believe the amount of time we were talking about Taylor.”
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Mother Mary casts Hathaway as the title character, who was previously described as a Lady Gaga-meets-Swift hybrid who flees a tour and winds up seeking out an old friend and fashion designer (Michaela Coel) who helped shape her public persona. The film features original songs by superstars Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX and a supporting cast that includes Coel, FKA twigs, Hunter Schafer and Kaia Gerber.
Lowery said the concert film, which originally streamed on Netflix, was particularly helpful as his team tried to map out what a stadium show would look like and how they could capture it on an independent film budget. “We took three songs from Reputation and broke it down, shot by shot, and looked at them like, ‘Okay, if we were doing these, how much would these shots cost to do in visual effects?’ We used that as a budgeting tool, because we didn’t know how to wrap our heads around actually pulling off a stadium concert-show on a minimal budget. We were literally using Reputation as a guide. I can go on about Reputation all day.”
Apparently, Swift was such an inspiration throughout the experience that when filming ended, Lowery’s star gifted him a Swiftie-approved parting gift. He also confirms that he and Hathaway attended a show of Swift’s Eras Tour while in Europe.
“When we wrapped, Annie gave me a Taylor Swift style beaded bracelet with ‘Anti-Hero’ on it,” says Lowery, referencing Swift’s lead single from her album Midnights. “I definitely brought a lot of Taylor Swift to the table in terms of who Mother Mary was. I would often would be like, ‘Imagine Taylor Swift in 10 or 15 years,’ that’s sort of who this character could be.”
Mother Mary hits theaters in limited release on April 17, followed by a wide bow on April 24.
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