Argylle director insists Taylor Swift did not write the spy novel

 theatrical debut, the filmmaker insisted that there really is an author who goes by the pseudonym Elly Conway — and it is not the pop star.

“I’m not a big internet guy, and it was actually my daughter who came up to me — this is the power of celebrity and the internet — and said, ‘You never told me Taylor wrote the book!’” Vaughn said. “I’m looking at her going, ‘What are you talking about Taylor Swift wrote the book? She didn’t write the book!’ I was laughing because I was like, ‘It’s not true! She didn’t write the book!’ But my daughter was convinced of it.”

“There is an Elly Conway who wrote the book, but it’s not Taylor Swift,” Vaughn maintained. “And I say that because I imagine Taylor Swift has a load of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right, and center, and I don’t want to be a part of that club. I did read the conspiracies and I was like, wow, they don’t leave a stone unturned! But it’s not Taylor Swift. She definitely didn’t write the book.”

Taylor Swift; Bryce Dallas Howard in ‘Argylle’.JOHN NACION/WIREIMAGE; PETER MOUNTAIN/APPLE TV+

Argylle follows best-selling spy author Elly Conway (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) as she’s drawn into the activities of an underground global spy syndicate, in a plot that closely mirrors the stories in her books and soon blurs the line between fiction and reality. The starry cast also includes Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, and Dua Lipa.

Swifties, with their FBI level of analytical skills, became convinced that the pop star penned the book due to a number of clues: her penchant for argyle sweaters, her two Scottish Folds (a feline companion featured in the novel and subsequent film), and the backpack in which the Scottish Fold is held in the film (Swift sported the same backpack in her 2020 documentary Miss Americana). There’s also the casting of Howard, a redhead much like Swift’s redhead in her short film for All Too Well.

According to Vaughn, the only actual connection to Swift is the casting of his Scottish Fold. The director said his daughters convinced their mother, model and actress Claudia Schiffer, to get them a Scottish Fold after watching Swift’s documentary. “I got home one day, it was Christmas, and I was like, ‘What the f— is that noise?’” he recalled. “The kids had seen [Miss Americana] and there was a Scottish Fold in that, and they’d persuaded my wife, Claudia, to get them the kitten for Christmas.”

“It was bought without my permission and hidden from me,” he said, adding, “As crazy as it sounds, that is our only Taylor Swift connection.”

Vaughn cast his own Scottish Fold after the actor cat they initially hired didn’t pan out. “It was odd because he rode to work with me every morning, shared my trailer,” the director said. “But he was great. And he seemed to enjoy it as well. He was a natural. The nepo cat.”

Watch the trailer for the movie adaptation of a book that Swift definitely did not write above.