Twilight: New Moon director regrets rejecting Taylor Swift cameo

Taylor Swift in Cats
(Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Twilight: New Moon director Chris Weitz regrets not including a cameo from Taylor Swift in the popular teen vampire film – after the pop star asked him herself.

The director discussed the decision on Ashley Greene and Melanie Howe's podcast The Twilight Effect – in which former franchise star Green sits down with friend and 'Twihard' Howe to dish on the film series. Weitz revealed that Swift, a big fan of both the books series and first installment, hadn't asked for a big part, and wanted to be "someone at the cafeteria, or the diner or whatever."

"The hardest thing for me was to be like, the moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen, for about five minutes, nobody is going to be able to process anything," Weitz explained. "I kick myself for it too, because—I was like, wow, I could’ve been hanging out with Taylor Swift. She must have been like, ‘Who is this jerk?’ But sometimes you make decisions thinking this is for the best of the film."

Weitz may have made the right call, especially considering that the movie was released back in 2009 – when Swift was first reaching global stardom. In a drearily-colored film about sparkly vampires, it's not hard to imagine that the singer would've stuck out like a sore thumb. The sequel did go on to break the record for highest first-day gross, raking in $72.7 million. Luckily, Swift has had plenty of other acting ventures – although one of them does include the 2019 CGI disaster musical Cats

For more, check out our list of the 100 best movies of the decade.

Lauren Milici
Senior Writer, Tv & Film

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for 12DOVE currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

Read more
Twilight
Almost 20 years later, Robert Pattinson thinks it's "crazy" that Twilight still gets hate: "Are you still stuck on that sh*t?"
Furiosa
After Sigourney Weaver said she should be in Avatar, Anya Taylor-Joy says it's her "dream" to be Na'vi: "I watched that movie eight times in a row once"
Josh Gad
Disney star says he could have played Jake Sully’s best friend in Avatar but James Cameron had to let him go because he looked like a "tall overweight Smurf"
Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg holding a Facebook business card during The Social Network, one of the best movies on HBO Max.
Jessie Eisenberg recalls going against studio advice and trying to meet Mark Zuckerberg while filming The Social Network: "I figured they would let me in"
Bill Skarsgård at the Nosferatu London premiere
Bill Skarsgård ended up staying "isolated" from his castmates when filming horror movie Nosferatu – but he recalls co-star Nicholas Hoult's kindness
Charli XCX
Charlie XCX is in talks to star in Greta Gerwig’s The Chronicles of Narnia movie - and that is so Brat
Latest in Drama Movies
Claire Danes as Juliet and Miriam Margolyes as Nurse in the movie Romeo + Juliet.
The 33 greatest movies based on Shakespeare
Bloodsport
The 32 greatest '80s action movies
Cosmo Jarvis
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey adds Shogun star to its massively star-studded cast, and I'm getting Oppenheimer vibes all over again
Adrien Brody in The Brutalist
This year's Best Actor Oscars speech broke a record that was over 80 years old
Adrien Brody as László Tóth in The Brutalist
Oscars 2025 live coverage: All the winners, red carpet, and the 97th Academy Awards' biggest moments – as it happens
The Last Showgirl
Beneath the glitz and glam of The Last Showgirl is a heartbreaking story about what mothers give up
Latest in News
Balatro
Balatro creator started "properly playing the game myself about a week before launch" and had "a pretty emotional moment" where he realized it's "actually fun"
Death Stranding 2 Collector's Edition
Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would
Kingmakers
Kingmakers is a strategy game about taking on medieval armies with a gun, but its devs thought the giant mech was too much
The Witcher 3 lead says "not many games" were trying to match the RPG back in 2015, and that meant "there was a risk" to making it in the first place
The Blood of Dawnwalker
The Witcher 3 dev says his new vampire RPG Blood of Dawnwalker wants to challenge genre conventions, but only if "we're changing them to actually achieve some goal"
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip