Everything We Know About Taylor Swift’s Revealing New Doco, ‘Miss Americana’
It promises to be an 'intense' look at the singer's biggest feuds, and why she decided to get political.
Taylor Swift has always been a little press shy.
The singer-songwriter has had something of a contentious relationship with the American media over her career. She gives interviews, sure, but she rarely goes deep on her life or even her work.
For the most part, she prefers to sidestep the tabloids altogether and converse directly with fans, holding secretive listening parties and coding clues into her work for the devoted to disseminate amongst themselves.
But all that seemed to change last year in the run-up to her latest record Lover — she gave a number of lengthy, personal interviews which examined her politics and her crash after 1989 — and she seems to be continuing the trend for the forthcoming release of her Netflix doco, Miss Americana. The documentary, filmed in secret while Swift was recovering from the gut-punch of reputation‘s mauling and her public fights with Kim Kardashian, promises to be the most in-depth look at Swift yet.
This is no generic music documentary, this is a genuine look at a public figure struggling with their own image. And it promises to be catnip for diehard Swifties — not to mention her haters. The film has so far been shrouded in secrecy. But, in true Taylor fashion, there are hints out there for those willing to go digging.
To that end, we compiled everything we could find about the forthcoming documentary. Here’s what we have.
Miss Americana Is About Failure
According to a recent Variety profile of Swift penned by Chris Willman, Miss Americana centres on a series of public blows that the musician took around the release of Reputation. “Director Lana Wilson sets the movie up so that it pivots on a couple of big letdowns for its subject,” goes the profile, noting that the biggest comes early in the film, when Swift learns that her new record has missed out on major Grammy nominations.
“She’s clearly bummed about the record’s brushoff by the awards’ nominating committee, as just about anyone who’d previously won album of the year twice would be,” Willman writes. “[So she] determinedly tells her rep that she’s just going to make a better record.”
Part of that story of defeat, of course, Swift’s run-in with Kim Kardashian, a feud that is recounted in Miss Americana. The film’s director has told Willman that including it was important — key, even, to her whole story. “With the 2009 VMAs, it surprised me that when she talked about how the whole crowd was booing, she thought that they were booing her, and how devastating that was,” says director Lana Wilson.
“That was something I hadn’t thought about or heard before, and made it much more relatable and understandable to anyone.”
Like Swift, The Film Will Get Political
A key element to Swift’s recent public persona revolves around her decision to upend years of silence on political issues. As Swift notes in Willman’s profile, at the outset of her career, she was applauded for staying silent on politics. But quickly, the culture demanded that she speak up, and when she didn’t, it started to hurt her.
Miss Americana will pivot on Swift’s eventual weighing into politics. Though the writing of her now famous statement on her new political stance won’t be covered by the documentary — it happened off-camera — the fall-out will be. In particular, the film features an “intense” scene in which Swift’s father loudly worries about the ramifications of speaking out against Trump.
“Right now, I’m terrified,” Swift’s dad Scott tells the cameras. “I’m the guy that went out and bought armoured cars.”
🎬 | Scenes in “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana” according to @Variety
• Taylor learns of no top Grammy nominations for “reputation”
• Swift argues with her father/team about releasing statement against Blackburn
• “Shut Up & Sing” clip from The Late Show With David Letterman— Taylor Swift News | TSwiftinAsia (@TSwiftinAsia) January 21, 2020
It’s An Empowering Look At Stardom
All that might make Miss Americana sound depressing. And sure, Willman has spoken out about the ways the documentary tackles with honesty the “flip side of being America’s sweetheart.”
But this is no trudge through mere heartbreak, and ultimately, the documentary has been described as capturing the good that can come out of the bad. After all, it ends with ‘Only the Young’, the song that Swift wrote about her newfound political voice, and an example of how you can always make art out of pain.
“I needed to get to a point where I was ready, able and willing to call out bullshit rather than just smiling my way through it,” Swift says in the Variety profile, simply.
Guess we’ll find out exactly what that looks like when Miss Americana drops on January 31 on Netflix. In the meantime, read the full profile in Variety over here.