Familiar faces! Taylor Swift‘s music videos have included many memorable appearances from famous men taking on the roles of her love interests.
Over the years, the Grammy winner has enlisted many well-known actors to help make her visions come to life, starting with Stephen Colletti in the 2008 music video for “White Horse.”
“Stephen was my first choice because I thought he was great on One Tree Hill and I had watched Laguna Beach when it was on and I was like, ‘He’s so cute!’” the performer said in a behind-the-scenes video for the project at the time. “The reason why he’s perfect for this role [is] because we were looking for someone who comes off very sweet and endearing. He just looks so sweet … you never expect that they would lie.”
As the Miss Americana star’s music continued to gain worldwide acclaim, Swift’s top choices for her videos were also some of her biggest fans. Ahead of Dylan O’Brien‘s scene-stealing performance in the “All Too Well” short film in November 2021, the Teen Wolf alum frequently gushed about Swift’s talent.
“Give any of the rest of us six months in quarantine and we look back on it and we’re like, ‘S–t, I should have done more.’ Give Taylor six months in quarantine, and she writes 50 hit songs,” O’Brien joked during an interview with Coup De Main magazine in April 2021, referring to Swift’s 2020 record Folklore.
At the time, the Outfit star broke down all of his favorite songs from the album, noting, “I’m a big ‘Mirrorball’ fan. I love ‘My Tears Ricochet’ and ‘Mad Woman,’ ‘Epiphany’ [and] ‘The 1.’ There’s so many more, but those are my highlights.”
Later that year, O’Brien portrayed a character inspired by Swift’s ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal in the short film, which was directed by the singer herself.
“I didn’t know [Taylor] knew who I was at all,” the Maze Runner actor told E! News in November 2021. “I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, I love her even more now. She’s, like, the best person ever, she is so brilliant. So yeah, it was like an automatic yes. I think we were sort of just hanging out on the phone and she asked me a while into it, like, you know, how long I wanted to think or whatever and it’s OK if I wanted to say no, and I was like, ‘Oh, it’s not even a question.’”
That same month, the Cats star recalled how O’Brien and Sadie Sink, the project’s female lead, were her only choices for the roles.
“I got their numbers and sent them text messages and I had already created an entire treatment and script and, like, visual kind of references of what I wanted to do,” Swift told E! News. “They had the song before anyone else had the song and when they said yes, I was so elated because I didn’t have backups in mind.”
Keep scrolling to see all the famous men who have left their marks in Swift’s music videos: