Los Angeles, Aug. 18 (IANS): Following the commercial success of 2008's 'Twilight', 'The Twilight Saga's New Moon' became one of the highly-anticipated movies in 2009. Director Chris Weitz has revealed that the Grammy Award-winning artiste Taylor Swift wanted to become a part of "New Moon", but he shot her down.
"The craziest one of all those was to hear that Taylor Swift was a huge Twi-hard," Weitz said during an appearance on 'The Twilight Effect' podcast with Ashley Greene and Melanie Howe, "and Taylor Swift and I had the same agent at the time and he said, 'Taylor would like to be in this movie - not because of you, but she's a Twi-hard'."
According to the 'New Moon' director, Swift was up for any kind of role in the film, reports aceshowbiz.com.
"'She would be someone at the cafeteria or the diner or whatever, but she just wants to be in this movie,'" he recalled his agent informing him. However, he rejected her request because he feared the "Shake It Off" hitmaker's fame would become too much distraction in the film.
"The hardest thing for me was to be like, the moment that Taylor Swift walks onto the screen, for about five minutes, nobody is going to be able to process anything," the 'American Pie' helmer said, before saying that he regretted the decision: "I kick myself for it too, because I was like, 'Wow, I could've been hanging out with Taylor Swift.' We could have been friends."
The 52-year-old added of Swift: "She must have been like, 'Who is this jerk?'"
Believing that it's the best for 'New Moon', he added though: "But sometimes you make decisions thinking this is for the best of the film."
Even without Taylor, 'New Moon' broke various box office records, earning a total of $709.8 million worldwide.
As for the country-turned-pop superstar, she clearly doesn't run out of movie gig offers as she has starred in such projects as 'Valentine's Day' where she appears along with the 'Twilight Saga' movie hunk Taylor Lautner, 'The Lorax' and 'Cats'.
She will next be seen in David O. Russell's ensemble film "Amsterdam".