When did Taylor Swift and Sadie Sink work together? Actress shares her favorite Tortured Poets Department track, recalls working with pop star
Actress Sadie Sink recently shared her experience of working with Taylor Swift and named her favorite track from the latter's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. The 22-year-old revealed that her favorite TTPD track is The Bolter.
In an interview with Teen Vogue published on April 3, 2025, Sadie Sink recalled working under Taylor Swift's direction for All Too Well: The Short Film in 2021, acting alongside Dylan O'Brien. She said:
“I remember some people were really weirded out by the age difference [in the short film]. Like, ‘Why would they cast these two actors together with this age gap?’ I'm like, ‘What? It was true to her.’"
The actress continued:
"[Taylor] knows what she's doing. She knows what she wants, and also, she’s so personable and fun to be around and comfortable. That was really good for me. I loved working with her.”
Sink starred in the All Too Well short film when she was 19, while her co-actor, Dylan O'Brien, was 30. The age gap between the two in the short film reportedly mirrored the real-life age gap between Swift and some of her former partners.
The film was 14 minutes 56 seconds long and featured a 10-minute version of Swift's track of the same name. It marked the pop star's filmmaking debut, as she both wrote and directed the short film. It portrays a romantic relationship between Sink and O'Brien's characters and how it ultimately falls apart due to their age difference.
Apart from All Too Well: The Short Film, Sadie Sink is renowned for her work in the Netflix series Stranger Things and the critically acclaimed 2022 film The Whale.
"I was going through exactly what the short film depicts"- When Taylor Swift talked about the inspirations behind All Too Well: The Short Film
In a December 2022 conversation with Martin McDonagh for the Variety Directors on Directors interview, Taylor Swift shared her inspiration behind writing and directing the All Too Well short film. The singer revealed that it was inspired by what she went through emotionally at a younger age, saying:
"Emotionally, I was going through exactly what the short film depicts, and I think that time is such an incredible asset to use when we have these stories that are hard to tell in the moment. Because it's good if a story is hard to tell, that means it's incredibly emotionally potent, but it's impossible to tell it with perspective and truth if you're in it sometimes."
Further, Taylor Swift mentioned that she found it "exciting" to reflect on her early 20s while directing the film when she was in her 30s. She added that she wanted to depict "girlhood calcifying into this bruised adulthood" through her work.
"I think there's a moment when you're 19 or 20 where your heart is so, so susceptible to just getting broken, getting shattered, and your sense of self goes out the window so quickly and it's such a formative age. I wanted to tell that story, too, about sort of girlhood calcifying into this bruised adulthood," she said.
Swift won multiple accolades for her work in the All Too Well short film, including Best Direction, Video of the Year, and Best Longform Video at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, along with Best Music Video at the Grammy Awards in 2023.
As per People magazine in December 2022, Searchlight Pictures announced that Swift would also be making her feature-length directorial debut. The film will be based on an original script written by the pop star. No updates were given on the same since 2022, while cast and plot details also remain unknown.
However, in her aforementioned interview with McDonagh, Taylor Swift mentioned that her next project would not focus on a "heartbreak" story.
"I don't think I would go headlong into another heartbreak story because it's just, you know, just did that. It takes a lot out of you," she said.
Since then, Taylor Swift has won an Album of the Year Grammy Award for her 2022 record, Midnights. She also released her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. Further, the pop star concluded her record-breaking Eras Tour, which hosted 149 concerts across six continents.
