The British actor, 31, is credited as a songwriter on “exile” and “betty” under the pseudonym William Bowery, and also has three credits on Swift’s follow-up albumevermore, including the title track.
“It was really the most accidental thing to happen in lockdown. It wasn’t like, ‘It’s three o’clock, it’s time to write a song!'” Alwyn toldGQ Hype. “It was just messing around on a piano and singing badly and being overheard and then thinking, you know, what if we tried to get to the end of it together?”
Alwyn said that he and Swift, who have beendating since 2016, decided to credit the star under a pseudonym in order to allow fans to focus on the music, and not that the famously private couple had created it together.
Joe Alwyn and Taylor Swift.Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
“The idea was that people would just listen to the music rather than focus on the fact that we wrote it together,” he said. “It was fun to do together, and I was proud of it. It was nice getting such a positive reception.”
He added that sending the song “exile” to Bon Iver’sJustin Vernonand receiving voice notes back with Vernon singing along was “surreal” and “a perk of lockdown.”
Swift, 32, previously offered fansinsight into herfolklorewriting processin the Disney+ documentaryFolklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, explaining that she overhead Alwyn singing an original tune.
“I heard Joe singing the entire fully formed chorus of ‘Betty’ from another room, and I just was like, ‘Hello,'” Swift said. “I came in and I was like, ‘Hey, this could be really weird and we could hate this, [but] because we’re in quarantine and there’s nothing else going on, could we just try to see what it’s like if we write this song together?'”
Alwyn toldGQthat he has no plans to write music again, and is focusing on acting, noting that he hopes “people really like"Conversations with Friends, which premieres on Hulu May 15.
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn in 2019.GOR/GC Images
Of his steamy scenes with costars, the actor toldExtrathat Swift has been nothing but supportive.
“I mean, she’s read the book and she loves the book so she knows it,” he said. “She just like, couldn’t be a bigger fan of the project.”
The FavouriteactortoldWSJ. Magazinelast monththat he and the “All Too Well” singer will continue to keep their relationship under wraps, engagement rumors be damned.
“If I had a pound for every time I think I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins,” he said. “I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”
source: people.com
