Taylor Swift is a prolific songwriter, performer, and budding filmmaker, but she's not exactly a novelist, as some fans have recently assumed.
Swiftis suspects the singer is the true author of "Argyll," the novel on which the upcoming film is based. (Elly Conway is ostensibly the author of "Argyll," but many believe her to be a pseudonym.)
But in an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine on January 17, "Argylle" director Matthew Vaughn confirmed that the mysterious book was not written by Swift. In the process, he revealed that his daughter was once sold on the fan theory.
"I'm not a big Internet person, and it was actually my daughter who came to me ... and said, 'You never told me Taylor wrote this book!'" Vaughn said. "I looked at her, 'What are you talking about Taylor Swift writing this book? She didn't write this book!' I laughed because I was like, 'That's not true! She didn't write this book. ! But my daughter is convinced of it.”
Conway's identity has been subject to speculation since Apple paid $200 million for the novel in August 2021, more than two years after it was published - a rare success for a first-time author. However, there is little information about her online, with a profile from Penguin Random House simply stating that she "lives somewhere in the United States."
"The book was written by Ellie Conway, but it wasn't Taylor Swift," Vaughan said. "I think Taylor Swift has a lot of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right and center, and I don't want to be a part of that club. I did read about the conspiracies and I was like, wow, they're leaving no stone unturned!"
Why fans think Swift wrote Argyle
Fans first thought Swift might be Ellie Conway after the character of the same name appeared on the Australian soap opera Neighbors , which debuted on December 13, Swift's birthday.
Fans also pointed out that the film features a lot of diamond patterns (which Swift is fond of) and features a Scottish Fold cat who shares a relationship with Swift's famous felines Olivia Benson and May Radice Gray is of the same breed. In the trailer, the cat is even seen wearing a travel backpack similar to the one Swift carried in the 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana.
The film is a meta version of the original film, with Ellie Conway playing the character played by Bryce Dallas Howard. Some Swifties thought Howard's look in "Argyle " resembled Swift's red-haired character in her short film "All Too Well." Additionally, she loves argyle sweaters, which inspired the film's aesthetic.
All of these clues turn out to be just coincidence. However, Swift did inspire the casting of Cats — albeit indirectly.
Vaughn's wife, model Claudia Schiffer , bought her daughters a Scottish Fold cat for Christmas after they watched "Miss Americana , " but the cat they hired didn't After the success, Vaughn ended up using the family's cats to shoot the film.
"As crazy as it sounds, this is the only connection we have to Taylor Swift," he said. "It's weird because he rides to work with me every morning and shares my trailer. But he's great and he seems to enjoy it. He's a natural. Nebo cat."
