Taylor Swift was rejected for Twilight role, director confirms: ‘Still kicking myself’

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Twilight: New Moon director Chris Weitz has revealed he still “kicks himself” for turning Taylor Swift down for a role in the 2009 movie.

In an interview with The Twilight Effect podcast with cast member Ashley Greene (Alice Cullen) and co-host Melanie Howe, Weitz explained that Swift is a huge Twilight fan and was desperate for a small part in the franchise – but he had to say no.

Swift, who had released her album Fearless in 2008, was too huge of a star and would have pulled focus from the second Twilight movie, Weitz said.

“Taylor Swift was a huge Twi-hard, and 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 she’s a Twi-hard,” he told the podcast.

“‘She would be someone at the cafeteria, or the diner or whatever, but she just wants to be in this movie’.”

Explaining why he had to turn her down, Weitz said: “The hardest thing for me was to be like, the moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen, for about five minutes, nobody is going to be able to process anything.”

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He added that despite “kicking himself” for denying Taylor Swift her Twilight moment, he doesn’t regret his decision.

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“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 has released a total of nine albums, and two re-recordings of earlier albums in order to “regain control of her music” after music manager Scooter Braun took ownership of her back catalogue as part of a takeover of her old record label.

At the time of the takeover, Swift said that she had been subjected to “incessant, manipulative bullying” at Braun’s hands “for years”, and called the situation her “worst nightmare”.

Now fans believe she will soon release re-recordings of her 2010 album Speak Now and 2014’s 1989, after the singer announced that her rerecorded “This Love”, from 1989, will be featured in the upcoming Hulu adaptation of The Summer I Turned Pretty.