Didn’t want those talents to go to waste! A new video of Taylor Swift in The Giver was released last weekend, and it features the Grammy winner doing what she does best: Making music.
The clip shows Swift in character as Rosemary, a former Receiver of Memory who ceased to exist after two months. (In Lois Lowry‘s young adult novel, the Receiver of Memories is the sole bearer of emotions in an otherwise bleak and regimented society.) Her successor Jonas (played by the film’s lead, Brenton Thwaites) watches The Giver (Jeff Bridges) pass along one memory of Rosemary, to help demonstrate music — which, in their dystopian world, is forbidden.
A brunette Swift quietly hums a melancholy tune to herself as she gently pads her fingers over the keys of the piano. “She’s the one they all talk about,” Thwaites says in the clip. Bridges responds, “She no longer exists… except here. And in my memories.”
In real life, Bridges praised Swift for her talents while speaking with reporters at The Giver press conference in Beverly Hills on Aug. 2. “Taylor, gosh,” the Oscar winner told Us Weekly. “She was so remarkable. She flew in. I think her first day of work was right on the heels of arriving in Cape Town and certainly exhausted. I had experienced that myself. But she was such a pro and so up for being involved and playing [Rosemary].”
The True Grit star and country singer also encouraged Swift to continue pursuing film and TV roles. “I hope she continues the acting,” he said, “because I think she’s very talented in addition to being a great songwriter and performer. She was just wonderful.”
As for the origins of why Swift was even cast as Rosemary to begin with? “I believe she was [executive producer Harvey Weinstein]’s idea,” Bridges, 64, recalled. “He said, ‘You’re being taught piano. Who would be really great for that part?’ Taylor came to his mind and I’m so glad she stepped on board. She had read the book I believe and was a big fan of that. She’s terrific.”
Watch her act in the above clip!
