Taylor Swift isn’t seeking approval — anymore.
The multihyphenate musician brought her star power to the opening day of Sundance for the premiere of Netflix documentary Miss Americana, a snapshot of the singer’s past decade and the milestones that led her to become a powerful voice in her industry and beyond.
Directed by Lana Wilson, Miss Americana documents formative moments in Swift’s life, going back to her early teens as she broke into the Nashville country music scene, where the singer talks about the pressure to be “the good girl.”
“We started the process not really knowing if we were going to end up with a documentary,” Swift said in a post-screening Q&A. “This was completely in [Wilson’s] hands, and I really appreciate all the hours we talked, those interviews, there were a lot of hours that she had to hear about me talk about my feelings.”
And then in 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards where, after arriving in a shimmering dress in a horse-drawn carriage, Swift’s win for best female video was derailed by Kanye West interrupting her onstage with the now-infamous declaration: “Imma let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time.”
That VMA moment, one embedded into pop culture history, led Swift — who was already an ambitious, hungry 19-year-old artist — to seek the top-most validation from her peers in music. She embarked on the journey to win the top album of the year Grammy, an accolade she has won twice, and in her own words, continuously seek approval from her fans and her peers, but in that process, she came to understand how damaging that was to her psyche.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter