Taylor Swift's Miss Americana Is A Coming-Of-Age Story, Says Director Lana Wilson

You think you know Taylor Swift, although, to quote a bygone MTV series, "you have no idea."


Enter Miss Americana, the new documentary from Emmy-winning director Lana Wilson, which attempts to fill the blank spaces in the Swiftian mythology. The film, which premiered last month at Sundance and is currently on Netflix, charts the pop star's transformation from a people-pleaser who measured her worth in pats on the head to a 30-year-old woman who's stopped worrying and learned to speak her mind.


once I began, there wasn't a set, 'This is the story,' or anything like that," Wilson told MTV News about the doc. "I just began filming soon after meeting her and then just filmed, filmed, filmed, and saw what emerged."


Wilson followed Swift everywhere, intent on capturing what she calls "the contrast between the ordinary and extraordinary" of the superstar's life. That insinuates seeing Swift command the stage while in her spectacle of a stadium show, trailed by remarkably more thrilling footage of her curled up on a studio sofa, fumbling through rough drafts of eventual hit songs. More vitally, we get a glimpse into her mindset as she resurfaced from a period of self-imposed exile to grapple with a sexual assault case, a eating disorder, an impassioned political awakening, and, oh yeah, the making of last year's swooning No. 1 album, Lover.


Below, Wilson tells MTV News about how Miss Americana is a coming-of-age story, the delicate balance of portraying Swift's romantic relationship, the studio footage she left on the cutting room floor, and the now-infamous "cat backpack."


MTV News: This film made me really excited to be able to see what sort of artist Taylor Swift is going to be in her 30s, right now that she's seemingly more comfortable speaking her mind and isn't as worried about being a quote-unquote "good girl." Do you visualize it as capturing a turning point in her life?


Wilson: Absolutely. I think it's a coming-of-age story about this woman at a pivot point in her life and career. Taylor went through all of this pain and then stood up and became the person she wanted to be, however did not be able to be for so several years, due to the leash that she put on herself. Have the ability to take that leash off, I think it's really astonishing for people to be able to see that. It's astonishing from a documentary director's perspective while you get to go with a subject who really changes in the time that you film with them. That's what I was lucky enough to get to see.


MTV News: You do get that sense that she doesn't feel the need to constantly reinvent herself anymore. How do you suggest the film sets a tone or an expectation for her going forward?


Wilson: I think she's habitually going to artistically challenge herself no matter what. What saw As soon as I saw her writing songs, and even from the videos of her as soon as she's 11 years old writing her first songs on the guitar, is that she's someone who is routinely going to write something she hasn't written about before and do something new and experiment. I do think she's more comfortable with who she is currently, though. It's about her journey to self-acceptance. She's far less focused on being the person other people want her to be and more focused on being the person who she wants to be and who she is.


MTV News: You certainly saw that during the film. At the same time, I loved seeing those moments where she's insecure, like any time as soon as she finds out that Reputation didn't get nominated for a Grammy or any time she's criticizing the way her face looks while shooting the "ME!" Video. She even says at one point that she feels like there's a higher end version of herself out there. How come do you know those moments are key to be able to see as well?


Wilson: I think while you visualize any insecurity coming out of the mouth of a superstar, that's a really powerful thing. And case in point, how we deal with insecurity is really what defines our strength. Taylor writes so candidly in her lyrics about the hardest times and the times any time things didn't go well. That's what her fans love her for. We all hope to feel far less alone, and that's one reason why people turn to art. It's fantastic for people to be able to see that their heroes are human.


MTV News: I noticed it really efficient how her ages showed up on screen while in the film. It really made you identify that she was so young whenever all of those big, formative life events were happening to her. Why did you determine to highlight her ages like that?


Wilson: That was my editor Greg O'Toole's idea, and I thought it was perfect. It changes the way you visualize everything. Whenever we think about Taylor Swift, I think we tend to forget how young she was while she began. You feel that amazement of, "Wow! She was writing those songs at that age?!" Although then there's also, "Oh my god, she had to go through that as soon as she was a teenager?!" You visualize the good things and the hard things at once. It gives context, although it’s also this reminder while in the film that this is a coming-of-age story.


MTV News: Completely. As soon as it came to portraying Taylor’s relationship with her boyfriend, that three or so minutes where he's shown backstage and then you visualize cell phone footage that looks like it was shot by him — I noticed that particularly moving and also a nice way to acknowledge something that is a critical segment of her life although is also sacred and private. What sort of care went into achieving that balance?


Wilson: It really was a balance. Taylor's had so several relationships go via public ringer, so it was critical to respect her hope to keep her relationship private, while still acknowledging the crucial role that relationship plays in her life. I remember we had done the opening rough cut and we had this whole section of her writing Reputation. She was like, "I do have a couple of videos on my phone that I think could capture the fact that As soon as I was out of the public eye, it was one of the happiest times of my life." Whenever I saw those videos, I was so moved by them. Especially by her singing "Call It What You Want" any time she's in the slippers. I was like, "This is everything. This is all we need to know." It's really special. You do not actually have to be able to see her boyfriend's face; you can feel it.


MTV News: I loved that scene and I loved the song choices overall. "Out Of the Woods," "Getaway Vehicle "Call It What You Want"... I thought it was really cool how you didn't just use "Shake It Off" and all of the big hits.


Wilson: I so appreciate you saying that because not a lot of people have commented on that. I really did not hope to do, "here's all of Taylor's greatest hits in the opening 10 minutes of the movie," which you often visualize in this kind of project. I wanted to use songs that were emotionally and thematically related to what was going on in the story at that time. With "Getaway Vehicle it's this moment of total freedom for her in the story of the film. Or tidy soon following the sexual assault trial, for example.


MTV News: Any time you're making this sort of film and you're capturing Taylor while in such a long stretch of time, how do you think once it's done? What was the moment any time once you realized you had enough of the story you wanted to tell?


Wilson: My sense was that we had to film by way of the Lover album release. I think you feel at that point in the film that Taylor isn't as concerned with what people will think of the album. It's more like, it was a joy for her to prepare and to put out into the world. She went through this period where she went away from society eye, nevertheless she wants to keep amusing people and making music, and nothing is going to stop her from that. I loved the idea of ending the movie with her walking onstage, and that idea of this bravery she's had since she was 12 years old, of walking out to perform. I wanted to end it with her going back out into the world again to face the public, yet you have the sense that something's a little different about her right now. That's the sense I hope the audience has.


MTV News: Was there anything you had to leave out of the film that you were particularly bummed about cutting?


Wilson: There was so much more songwriting and recording in the studio. It's so special to be able to see something come from just the seed of an idea — a fragment of a melody or a lyric typed in her phone — and get to then hear it as a finished song. That's some of my preferred stuff in the film, yet there was a lot that we had to leave on the cutting room floor, heartbreakingly.


MTV News: I'd imagine. Do you know that footage will ever be used for anything?


Wilson: I don't know. People have asked me about it, so it's giving me hope that maybe we may just release the 40-minute version of Taylor writing "Only the Young" as a standalone film or something.


MTV News: Honestly, I would watch. A lot of people would watch!


Wilson: I think a lot of people would.


MTV News: Last question: How long did it take for Meredith and Olivia to heat up to you?


Wilson: I don't know if they ever did, honestly! They're very pretty and they're quite friendly. They're often hiding under things. They just sort of pop out from somewhere, and also you do have this feeling of, "There are cats everywhere!"


MTV News: I loved the screen time they got. Especially the cat backpack.


Wilson: I remember watching the cat backpack scene with one of my editors and I was like, "Is this also long? Are we spending also long on the cat backpack?" He looked at me and he was like, certainly not." And he was absolutely right.