More than halfway through Miss Americana, the new documentary about Taylor Swift, the singer takes to the stage and opens up to her audience. Teary-eyed, she explains just how much her 2017 sexual assault trial affected her, and offstage, she expands, hinting that the trial was ultimately the catalyst for her later political action. “I couldn’t really stop thinking about it,” she says. “And I just thought to myself, ‘Next time there’s any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say.’”
It’s been fairly easy to follow the rise of Swift, from 15-year-old country wunderkind to pop sensation. It’s been easy to follow the drama, too, all of which seemed to kick off when Kanye West stormed Swift’s acceptance speech during the 2009 VMAs. But most of her mystery stems from the past few years, when Swift briefly escaped the public eye before taking a political stance for the first time and releasing two more studio albums. Swift knows what she wants to say now, and in Miss Americana, fans get an intimate look at how she got there.
Over the course of an hour and a half, Emmy-winning director Lana Wilson charts Swift’s transformation, combining archival video with never-before-seen footage. Swift opens up about her experience with an eating disorder, her decision to go against her own team’s advice and publicly support a candidate during the 2018 midterms, and how she went from being a “good girl” who craved external validation to a grown woman who understands that misogyny often deems what’s good and what’s bad.
It’s a turn for Wilson, whose past documentaries have followed late-term abortion providers (After Tiller) and a punk-rocker-turned-priest who works in suicide prevention in Japan (The Departure). Ahead, she explains how she approached the film, what she learned from Swift, and why driving is the best place for reflection.
How did you build trust with Taylor in order to get access to these private moments?
Lana Wilson: Part of it was that she had seen some of my earlier work, and she responded really positively to my storytelling style. She liked that I make films that are about people living in extraordinary circumstances, stories that are often told through headlines and sound bites and often oversimplified. But I try to tell these stories with complexity and depth and a focus on the gray area rather than making things sensational or black and white.
One of the first things she said was, “I really don’t like documentaries that feel like propaganda.” I love that because I don’t like films that push a point of view on the audience. Beyond that though, it was really just spending time together. Taylor hadn’t done an interview in three years when I first met her, and she also had never had anyone film her writing songs in the studio before. It just takes time gradually building the trust. In the case of the recording studio, the first day I filmed her, it was just me with the camera, and I just stayed planted and very still on a chair. Then I might bring in a director of photography the next day, so it’s gradually building up.
How do you feel like your relationship with her changed throughout filming?
As soon as I met her, I thought, she’s extraordinarily kind and generous and smart and funny. That’s how I felt the whole way through. She and I connected over both being storytellers, and she really wanted to give me the space to find and tell the story. I think she knew that having a director who brings a perspective to a project and has that creative space, that’s what’s going to make for the best film. It was really a treat and a joy to collaborate with her in that way. As an artist, I learned so much from watching her work, from her work ethic and her drive and her relentless creativity and dedication to her music.
Did you stop recording before the record label drama between Taylor and Scooter Braun?
The reason [it wasn’t included in the film is] I felt like there wasn’t really anything to that story that people didn’t know already. I think Taylor’s put that out there in her own words already, and it’s been so widely covered by the press. I really wanted to tell this story that people hadn’t heard before and hadn’t seen before.
Why did you decide not to have any other talking heads?
I really wanted the film to be about Taylor’s inner life, so I felt it was important to tell this story primarily through her own voice. You’ll see moments, of course, in conversations she has with people who are close to her in her life. You’ll see her talking to other people through these scenes as well as archival material, but really, it’s about her personal journey and her finding her voice, so I wanted to express that in the style of the film.
How did you figure out which songs to play and where?
I didn’t want to focus on number one hits. I wanted to use songs that were a little bit deeper in her catalog, like “Out Of The Woods” or “All Too Well.” I wanted songs that expressed big, emotional, thematic things about the story of the film.
I never wanted to do a concert number just for the sake of doing the concert number. For example, “Getaway Car” is used in the film at this moment where she’s written and come out of Reputation, and it’s this song about freedom. Then we used “Clean” after she talks about her sexual assault trial. The songs are so much more powerful when they’re used within the emotional context of the story.
I noticed at the end you used “The Archer,” and the whole documentary ends on the line, “I’m ready for combat.”
For “The Archer,” that’s the only time we use music in the film where it’s Taylor’s music as soundtrack. That is such a vulnerable song about Taylor looking at herself. For me, the ending of the movie is, this is someone who has been through so much and has made it through all the challenges and is standing up and is going back out there to perform. She’s going back out into the world very conscious of all the joys and the challenges that that brings, but she’s doing it anyway. She’s doing it because she’s an artist who loves to express herself and to communicate with people. “The Archer” communicated this, “I’m going back out there” feeling.
What did you learn from your other projects that helped you prepare for this one?
How to be in a room, how to film, and not intrude on someone’s life. I don’t think any documentary filmmaker can be invisible. I never thought, “Oh, I’m a fly on the wall. No one notices me.” I think you’re present in the room no matter what, and the challenge for making vérité film, like my previous work, is how can I be a silent witness and a part of this process, without interfering in what’s happening?
A lot of the really heavy conversations end up taking place in the car, including when she talks about politics and her experience with an eating disorder. Were there certain spaces where she felt super comfortable being vulnerable and open? Or when you’re famous, are you just in a car a lot?
When you’re busy and traveling a lot, you’re in the car a lot. In general, I think that riding in the car is a reflective space for a lot of people. I have certainly had some of the most serious and profound conversations in my life while riding in a car with someone. I don’t know what it is about scenery flying by. I think it’s that you’re in forward motion. For a lot of people, riding in a car is a place where you can open up and reflect about where you’ve been and where you’re going; [it] has this directional quality that lends itself to that.
Did you feel the need to put your own fandom aside or come at the film with a more critical eye in order to be “objective”?
I was the kind of fan who knew her albums inside out, and I deeply admired her as a songwriter. [But] I had never been to a show. I knew nothing about her personal life. You can’t make this a movie without knowing Taylor’s music. You’re missing out on a huge part of her humanity and her as a creator. That said, I wasn’t trying to make an illustrated biopic of her career or a Wikipedia entry of everything [that] happened in her career and life.
I was much more interested in coming in with curiosity and an open mind and questions, and getting to know her as a person, and then seeing what was happening over the years that I was filming. You’re always looking for, what is the essence of this person and how are they changing or growing? I would always notice when there were moments where Taylor would say something, where she would voice stuff that I had thought before. It would affect me.
Do you have an example of that?
When she talked about this idea of being a “good girl,” I totally connected to that because I ask myself at least 100 times a day, “Are they mad at me? Do they like me? Did I say something wrong?” We all care about what people think about us. It’s a part of being human. Especially for women and girls, growing up in this society, you’re taught that other people’s approval is of paramount importance to your self-worth. I will often write an email and then think, “Oh, god, should I send this, or will I seem like a bitch?” Then when I was interviewing Taylor, and she said, “There is no such thing as a bitch,” it had a huge impact on me. I was like, “You’re right. How could I have never thought of it that way before?”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.