Taylor Swift Downplays Association With Harvey Weinstein

Variety Staff

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Taylor Swift’s association with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was among the topics the singer addressed in a revealing new interview with The Guardian. Weinstein held producer credits for the movies “One Chance” and “The Giver,” both of which featured Swift — in the former, a song, and in the latter, a supporting role. She also attended the premiere for “The Giver” (pictured above with Weinstein and Katie Holmes) in 2014.

Asked if she ever spent time with Weinstein alone, Swift said no and downplayed her interactions with him. Swift is described as “dispassionately” recounting: “He’d call my management and be like, ‘Does she have a song for this film?’ And I’d be like, ‘Here it is.’” Swift added that she would “get a vibe” from Weinstein and “would never vouch for him” and described his conduct (Weinstein is facing five charges of rape, sexual assault, and “predatory sexual assault” in New York, stemming from allegations from two women) as “a power thing.”

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Seeing as she wasn’t in a subservient position to Weinstein, Swift said astutely: “If you listen to the stories, he picked people who were vulnerable, in his opinion. It seemed like it was a power thing. So, to me, that doesn’t say anything – that I wasn’t in that situation.”

She also reasserted her position: “I believe women who come forward, I believe victims who come forward, I believe men who come forward.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Swift said she regretted “not saying anything” during Trump’s run for presidency in 2016.

The 29-year-old singer received criticism from some progressives for her apolitical stance following the election, and for not denouncing white nationalists who believed that she secretly supported their beliefs. She broke her silence last October when she endorsed two Democratic Tennessee candidates, Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper, for the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections, a move that would rechristen the singer as a political activist for the LGTBQ+ community and others marginalized by the current White House.

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