Taylor Swift kept her new song “Carolina” period correct for the upcoming film Where the Crawdads Sing.
Director Olivia Newman joined Reese Witherspoon for a roundtable discussing the upcoming film and revealed Taylor made the song authentic to the early ’50s, which is when the first half of Where the Crawdads Sing is set.
Witherspoon, who produced the film, revealed she “freaked out” when she found out the Grammy winner tailor made “Carolina” especially for the movie — without telling anyone.
“She read this book and loved it so much, and then she heard we were making a movie [while] she was making her folklore album and then she wrote a song with that whole folklore team, which was so haunting, and magical and beautiful,” Witherspoon continued to gush. “I was blown away.”
Added Newman, “She had gone and written this song out of just pure inspiration and sort of said, ‘I don’t know if you’ll like it, but here it is!'” The director added Taylor “wrote this gorgeous letter to us explaining how they chose instruments that were only available before 1953 and she recorded it in one take the way they recorded songs at the time.”
Newman also admitted, “The first time I listened to it, I just started bawling and I said, ‘I don’t know what’s happening to me right now.’ I mean, I love singing along to Taylor Swift songs but I never cry like this.”
Newman, who is also a fan of the book and its earthshaking ending, said Taylor perfectly captured the “very specific feeling” readers experience upon finishing the last chapter. “We wanted to leave audiences with that same sort of emotional feeling and her song just leans right into that,” she said.
Where the Crawdads Sing arrives in theaters July 15.
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