The Weird Relationship Between Taylor Swift and Brie Larson
When Brie Larson first posted her cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘The 1’ to her Instagram story in July of 2020, 5 separate people tagged me to alert me to the situation. The joke was on them, however- as a diehard Swiftie and a staunch member of the Brie Larson Defence Squad, I of course was already aware this had happened. I unapologetically stan both of these women, and any crossover between them is simply my own personal multiverse of madness.
As such, I feel as though it is my personal duty to deep dive into something that many people have noticed ever since Brie posted that cover:
The palpable yet not existent tension between Brie Larson and Taylor Swift.
What do I mean by this? It means that Academy Award winner and youtuber Brie Larson desperately wants to be friends with, or at least noticed by, Grammy award winner and global icon Taylor Swift.
And Taylor Swift is ignoring her in a way we’ve never seen before.
Taylor is known for interacting with and having a connection with her fans. She’s also known for her public friendships with high profile celebrities. Brie Larson is both fan and celebrity, and yet has been essentially shut out from entering this world she very clearly wants to be a part of.
I think this one-sided fandom from two celebrities as high profile as Larson and Swift is entirely unique in modern stan culture. When Taylor Swift, who famously interacts with fans on social media, ignores your numerous engagement attempts despite your standing as an acclaimed actress, what does that mean?
It’s interesting, as on paper it seems like these two should be besties. In another world, Brie could have been a part of Taylor’s Girl Squad. Both outwardly, openly, and frequently criticise how their respective industries are influenced by misogyny, and how they’re impacted by the decisions of the ‘men in charge’. Both receive an inconceivable amount of online hate, once again driven by a misogynist crusade against them, and both are painfully millennial. I’m sorry, but it’s true.
More so, as Swift begins to break into the film industry, she’s been shouting out and recognising those who stand in high regards for Oscar’s contention this year- namely Martin McDonagh, and Guillermo del Toro. Would it not also be beneficial to her to have an Academy award winning actress not only willing, but BEGGING to associate with her? Surely, it’s not Swift’s previous history with MCU stars keeping her from this friendship.
However, it seems that literally any random swiftie on TikTok has a better chance of getting a Taylor notice than Larson does.
During her Midnights rollout, Swift engaged in a fan favourite activity known as ‘tay-lurking’ on social media- in local terms, liking and commenting on fan’s videos and tweets about the upcoming album. Larson partook in the hype, posting a video of her working out with Swift’s song ‘Anti Hero’ playing to her Instagram and Twitter. Which is a weird work out playlist choice if one wasn’t vying for some attention. Unfortunately, Academy Award winner Brie Larson wasn’t as lucky as TikTok user @yourhightops, who currently has 924 followers and got noticed by Taylor Swift four days ago.
It’s purely speculation as to why Taylor is acting like Brie cooked her cats and served them at teatime. Ignoring a cover of a song in an Instagram story? Understandable. Wearing fan made merch? Very indirect, easy to ignore. Multiple tweets from an acclaimed actress directly @ing you over multiple years? That’s becoming intentional.
Not to make something out of nothing, as I am well aware of Swift’s history of fabricated feuds. However, I can think of two possible reasons why this is happening. Both make Swift look very petty, but hey- she’s known to hold a grudge.
The first potential reason:
Brie Larson and Karlie Kloss are friends.
This surprised people to find out, as this was never advertised until Karlie’s birthday last year, when Brie posted a message to Kloss on social media with a picture of them together.
For those unaware of the Swift/Kloss history, that’s a story in and of itself. However, the quickest rundown is that Swift and Kloss met backstage at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and soon became inseparable to the point where many fans speculated, they might be involved romantically. Whilst Swift denied these rumours, Kloss was a mainstay in Swift’s Girl Squad until one day she just… wasn’t anymore?
The two haven’t been seen together since 2017 when Swift posted a photo of the two of them together backstage at Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour. It’s rumoured that Kloss spoke to media outlets about Swift’s private life and that she has close ties with Scooter Braun, the villain in the Swift re-recording era. There is no evidence that any of this is true, however, it is abundantly clear that Taylor and Karlie have some bad blood. And Larson being friendly with Kloss could be hindering her ability to connect with Swift.
Although this may be looking too deeply into things, as Brie Larson is more than comfortable sending birthday tweets to people she doesn’t know. Side note, Brie tweeted Taylor a happy birthday message when Taylor turned 32 in 2021.
The other potential reason that Taylor Swift might not be a fan of Brie Larson is out of left field, and ridiculously forgettable to literally anyone else.
It comes from an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! back in 2019, where Larson was the guest host for the night whilst Jimmy Kimmel was away. As host, Larson got to pick one of the guests that appeared on the show that night, and she chose a contestant from 90 Day Fiancé called Molly. During the interview, Molly claimed to be a ‘bra psychic’, meaning she could guess anyone’s bra size just by looking at them. They have a bit of back and forth, and Molly correctly guesses Brie’s bra size. Then, to try and throw a “curveball” at Molly, Larson holds up a picture of Swift from the movie Cats (which had yet to be released at this point) and asks, “what is the bra size of this?”.
Now, this is before Taylor Swift’s ‘Miss Americana’ documentary had been released, wherein she talks about her struggles with her body image and eating disorder. So there’s no real way to say Brie was intentionally and maliciously commenting on Taylor’s body- and considering she’s a fan, I doubt that she would with or without this added context. However, there is a minute possibility that Taylor may have seen this and taken this joke the wrong way. A small number of Swifties were upset at Brie for this joke, saying that she was being creepy by objectifying and sexualising Taylor without her permission. So, it’s a possibility that Taylor could be upset as well?
It just seems that as the victim of one of the most widespread and vicious hate trains/cancellations the internet has ever concocted, it’s highly unlikely that Taylor Swift would hold a grudge over something so… benign? forgettable? boring? Whilst yes this is the same Taylor Swift that called out the show Ginny and Georgia for a one-line joke at her expense (she was correct in doing so), and also held a grudge against Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for a similar joke at the 2013 Golden Globes, even this seems far beneath her standards of caring.
So, what is the truth? Does Taylor Swift have a vendetta against Brie Larson for (almost) no reason? Is Brie Larson just obsessive and crazy? Perhaps we’ll never know. I wish the best of luck to Brie in her efforts to achieve what so many other thousands of swifties are also trying to do. And Taylor… keep it up! With all the love in the world to Brie, being able to relate to an Academy Award winner is not often available to us common folk, and I am enjoying seeing someone get ignored by Taylor Swift and her team as much as I am.
If you want to see a full timeline of all the times Brie Larson has been a fan of, and subsequently ignored by Taylor Swift, don’t worry I’ve covered that too.
August 2019- Brie guest hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live! and mentions Taylor in a one-off joke
July 2020- Brie posts herself singing a cover of Taylor’s ‘the 1’ to her Instagram story
November 2021- Brie posts another cover of a Taylor song, this time being ‘Nothing New’ from her recently released album ‘Red (Taylors Version)
December 2021- Larson quote retweets her Nothing New cover, using it to wish Taylor a happy birthday
November 2022- Brie Larson posts a video of her working out with ‘Anti Hero’ being played; she also tags Taylor in the caption
January 2023- Brie posts a slideshow of pictures from her Christmas/new year’s; fans spot that the shirt she is wearing is fan made merch of Taylor’s song ‘karma’ from midnights
August 2023- Brie attends Taylor’s Eras Tour in Los Angeles; unlike other celebrity guests, she was not in the VIP tent, but rather in the nosebleeds surrounded by us regular folk