Producer Kelly McCormick said that both Taylor and Ryan Gosling were aware of the emotional depth needed for the breakdown scene in his role. With the release of a record-breaking double album, the singer has proven her all-around talent.
About six hours after releasing the 31 tracks from The Tortured Poets Department, producer Kelly McCormick is forced to acknowledge that she is “a little nervous—I’m not going to lie, Savannah,” before reminding me that “It’s a big deal to talk about Taylor Swift.”
Ryan Gosling sings Taylor Swift’s All Too Well in The Fall Guy
Singing a Swift song on screen is also a significant occasion. Just ask Ryan Gosling, who sings the heartbreaking lyrics of Swift’s 2012 barn burner of a breakup song, “All Too Well,” as he deals with a recent breakup in his new action comedy The Fall Guy.
Gosling portrays stunt performer Colt Seavers, who, after he gets hired for Emily Blunt’s feature directorial debut, awkwardly reunites with the lady he once ghosted, Jody Moreno. The last time the two spoke was eighteen months ago, following Colt’s horrific back injury, which caused him to cut off communication with everyone, including Jody.
After a traumatic first day of filming with Swift, Colt hides out in his car to wallow in his misery while listening to the song that Rolling Stone has deemed to be Swift’s greatest. Swift croons, “Maybe we got lost in translation / Maybe I asked for too much /But maybe this thing was a masterpiece ’til you tore it all up / Running scared, I was there / I remember it all too well,” while flashbacks of his relationship with Jody play. Jody taps on the glass, catching her ex-boyfriend in the act. She says, “Have you been crying to Taylor Swift?” “Don’t all of them?” he asks.
In the interest of business, Colt downplays his pain, and Jody swears to forget their “fling-ette,” but the scene—as well as Swift’s song—makes apparent the connection they formerly shared.
“That was the ideal application of a Taylor cue,” exclaimed a major Swiftie when we were at a test screening. It was funny and equally heartbreaking,” McCormick remarks. It was the greatest compliment I’ve ever received. It was almost as wonderful as Steven Spielberg declaring that he enjoyed the movie.
Swift’s song was almost cut from the film; in fact, McCormick persuaded her husband, director David Leitch, to even try the song. “It was not written in, and when we were shooting, David had a Harry Nilsson song playing,” McCormick claims. “But it felt a little melodramatic to me in a bad way” Turns out, Gosling had the same thoughts.
McCormick remarks, “What’s weird is that Ryan and I sometimes think of the same things at the same times. He said, ‘I wonder if we should try Taylor in that scene.’ He is aware that the love story embodies everything Taylor suggests—it is contemporary, new, messy, wild, and genuine.”
Taylor Swift’s All Too Well becomes heartbreak anthem in The Fall Guy
The producer presented All Too Well as the ideal “heartbreak anthem” to go along with Colt’s spiral into remorse when it came time to pitch the idea to Leitch. She encountered opposition, but not before she and Leitch went to Swift’s Eras show in Las Vegas. McCormick claims that “she sang the 10-minute version.”
McCormick attributes the deal’s brokering to NBCUniversal’s music department. Swift has previously collaborated with it on an original song for the 2019 Cats adoption and provided the voice of Bombalurina. She claims that “they weren’t concerned.”
“Taylor is genuinely quite willing to share her music with motion pictures. There were no notes when we showed her what we had removed. Thank goodness, she’s willing to participate in the process and didn’t charge so much that we couldn’t include her.” McCormick adds, emphasizing the crucial phrase once more, “Thank goodness.”
Swift hasn’t had a chance to watch the movie yet, but she has openly welcomed Gosling’s connection to what some consider to be her masterpiece. Gosling sang a reworked rendition of All Too Well on his recent Saturday Night Live hosting gig, signaling the end of his Barbie phase and, finally, his breakup with Ken.
He and Blunt collaborate on the song “If I said that I was doing fine, you know I’d be lying / ‘Cause I was just Ken and now I’m just Ryan” in his monologue.
Swift permitted Gosling to perform her song on Saturday Night Live, according to McCormick, but they “were all touched that she reposted” the video after it aired. Swift not only agreed with Gosling’s performance but also praised it. She posted on Instagram, saying, “Watch me accidentally catch myself singing this version on tour. There’s nothing like this monologue.”
Although McCormick’s career has been mostly based on action-packed movies like Bullet Train and Atomic Blonde, she admits that romantic comedies are more her style.
“There were times when I was simply beaming as we were creating it to be able to see Ryan and Emily discover that sizzle.” She also mentioned that she was listening out for potential follow-ups from The Tortured Poets Department now that she had secured one Swift song for her films. McCormick remarked that he’d have to sit down, get a glass of wine—or maybe a bottle—and simply listen.
