Walk down memory lane! Taylor Swift seemingly hinted at her relationship with ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal in her All Too Well short film.
The nearly 15-minute video, written and directed by the 31-year-old Grammy winner, dropped on Friday, November 12, in tandem with the release of Red (Taylor’s Version). Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien starred in the project as “Her” and “Him,” though their characters bore a striking similarity to Swift and Gyllenhaal, 40.
The short featured the 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” which fans have long assumed was inspired by the Spider-Man: Far From Home actor. Swift continued to play coy about her muse for the song at the Friday premiere for the film.
“That’s one of the interesting questions that people ask me all the time about songs, and what I think is important to note is that these songs were mine years ago when they were written. Now they’re ours, now they’re shared,” she told Extra. “I think every person out there might have someone they think of when they hear the song, and that’s what I want.”
Swift noted the impact of the track even before its reemergence on her new album. “This is all about what the fans have turned this song into,” she told The Associated Press on Friday. “It was never a single, never had a video, it never had a visual element to it, but they pretty much created their own imaginary cinematic universe for it, so this is just me following through on what they started and what they told me they wanted.”
The singer had nothing but praise for Sink, 19, and O’Brien, 30, too. “I trusted Dylan and Sadie,” she gushed to Extra. “They were so prepared, they were so committed. You couldn’t really keep your eyes off of them on the monitors, so obviously you try to prepare as much as you can before you get there, but on the day, that electricity is either there or it’s not, and the onscreen chemistry between those two — they’re just so talented.”
Swift and Gyllenhaal briefly dated in 2010. He brushed off a question about “All Too Well” in 2015 on The Howard Stern Show, replying, “Do I [have a song]? I don’t know.”
The exes have both moved on. The songwriter has been dating Joe Alwyn since 2017, while the actor has been linked to Jeanne Cadieu since 2018.
Scroll through the gallery below to see all the Easter eggs from the short film:
