Taylor Swift Reveals the Secret Easter Eggs and Themes Inside ‘All Too Well: The Short Film’

variety.com:

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterFor hundreds of Swifties in New York City, today was a fairy tale.That’s because Taylor Swift made a rare public appearance, at Tribeca Festival, to screen her short film “All Too Well” and talk with filmmaker Mike Mills (“C’mon C’mon,” “20th Century Women”) about bringing the 10-minute track to the big screen.“This is not a music video,” she informed the audience at the Beacon Theatre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “We approached everything differently.”In a wide-ranging conversation, the notoriously private pop star also revealed easter eggs in the short film, discussed her ambitions to direct a movie and treated fans to a surprise performance of “All Too Well.” Seated near the stage, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds were among the many in the crowd who enthusiastically sung along, clapped and took videos of Swift throughout the lengthy track.

Long before Swift broke out her red guitar, Mills remarked the 90-minute conversation felt like a concert because of the energetic crowd’s nonstop cheering.“Sorry I’m not Taylor Swift,” he joked as he took the stage.

By the way… how did Mills, best known for indies like “C’mon, C’mon,” come to moderate a panel with Swift? As it turns out, she’s a die-hard fan of his 2019 short film “I Am Easy to Find” and texted him “out of the blue.”Swift, 32, has been writing and performing her own songs since she was a teenager.

After spending a lot of time on the sets of music videos, she became interested in stepping behind the camera herself.“I was always curious,” she said. “I started to venture into the edit [for music videos] and making changes and meddling… it started with meddling.”Swift, who wrote and directed “All Too Well: The Short Film,”.