If blog posts had a music cue, this would be the moment for Taylor Swift’s secretly-written “This Is What You Came For,” as performed by Calvin Harris and Rihanna. Taylor Swift’s new boyfriend is Joe Alwyn, a 26-year-old British actor who really wasn’t getting a lot of work. His big break was supposed to be his “star turn” in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk last year, only the film was not a critical or financial success and no one was clamouring for MOAR Joe Alwyn. Then bippity boppety boop, he starts dating Taylor Swift and he’s reportedly moving to LA, to be closer to Tay and to improve his career. And wouldn’t you know? Being Taylor Swift’s boyfriend has some perks! Joe Alwyn was just cast in a new movie:
Rising star Joe Alwyn, who starred in Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, has been cast opposite Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan in Mary Queen of Scots. The Working Title and Focus Features project, which will be helmed by Josie Rourke, chronicles the historical family rivalry between Elizabeth and Mary, when the latter attempted to overthrow her cousin’s seat on the English thrown.
The story centers on Mary (Ronan), who, as a child, was taken to France and betrothed to King Henry II’s eldest son Francis. But the marriage is short-lived when Francis dies a year after being crowned king following his father’s death and Mary returns to Scotland in an attempt to regain favor with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth (Robbie). Alwyn will play Dudley, Queen Elizabeth’s counselor and lover.
Mary Queen of Scots is based on John Guy’s 2004 biography The True Life of Mary Stuart. Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title are producing the pic along with Debra Hayward. Michael Hirst and Penelope Skinner wrote the script.
Alwyn as Robert Dudley to Margot Robbie’s Elizabeth?? Eh. Call me crazy, but I still enjoy Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth and Joseph Fiennes as Robert Dudley. Joe Alwyn just seems way too boyish, especially opposite Margot Robbie, right? As for Alwyn’s big new career path… we’ll see. I’m sure Tom Hiddleston thought the Tiddlebanging would be great for his career too. This is what you came for, Joe Alwyn.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
He looks like a teenager. Not really attractive
He looks like a baby and like an old man at the same time.
Yeah… his wolf stare makes him look more like the high school jock bully than a refined English heartthrob to me. The movie’s casting sounds like some awful Teen Beat version of “Elizabeth.” I shall pass.
@ WeAreAllMadeofStars :
“some Teen Beat version of Elizabeth.
1. LOL
2. I remember Teen Beat! and yeah, that makes me old (too). Love and kisses to a fellow former teenage girl.
Wheres Tiger Beat when you need it?
This one is new age JTT, he needs a Tiger Beat spread.
You are bringing back memories with TIGER BEAT. I go back so far that my crushes were Davy Jones of the MONKEES, now sadly gone, and Mark Lindsay of PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS. If you remember them, you are officially old. LOL
Third Ginger, may I join you and add Bobby Sherman lol? I had all the Tiger Beat pics of him and Davy Jones up on my bedroom walls (my best friend was in luuuuuv with Mark Lindsay), and even stuck into the slats of my canopy bed 😊 My 8 year old heart thought they’d wait for me to grow up lol. I had on Sirius Radio on the 60s channel yesterday, and when I turn on the car “Little Woman” came on….sigh…oh…the memories!!! 💭
Well I just checked, and apparently Teen Beat went under ten years ago. 🙁
But Tiger Beat is something I frequently read for free at Target!
Dudley was already a seasoned soldier by the time he caught Elizabeth’s eye – Alwyn looks like he might have trouble waving a fork around. I’ll see it for Ronan’s Mary, though – I consider her immensely talented and never boring. I thought her work in “Brooklyn” amazing.
Blanchett’s “Elizabeth” is one my guilty pleasures because the cast is tremendous, but OMG factual history is so scandalously mistreated! In my opinion, Jeffrey Rush’s Walsingham walked off with that one, closely followed out the door by Eccleston’s cool but intense traitorous Norfolk. Have I ever mentioned how crazy I am about both actors? No? Now I have.
And then there’ Bette Davis . . . and Glenda Jackson.
Elizabeth seems to be for serious actresses what Hamlet is for serious actors: something they just can’t resist giving a try.
He’s nice-looking, wouldn’t mind seeing him in something. Everybody needs connections in entertainment and his is Taylor Swift. Wish mine was.
A fine opportunity for this young man. I like Robie, but I love Ronan. I will be nice and not cynical today.
Huh. He has an interesting face. He looks very young here but he’s got this aristocratic thing going on for him so I suppose if the make-up team can make him look older, at least aesthetically I could see it work. Handsome kid. Good luck with dealing the fallout once the relationship with miss hiss goes tits up.
Edit: it’s got Margot and Saoirse in it. Of course I’m going to go see that movie, they’re such skilled, talented and beautiful actresses.
Yeah, I really can’t picture him as Robert Dudley. But more importantly, I’m trying to figure out how I feel about Margot Robbie as Elizabeth. I think I’m in favor? She’s too conventionally beautiful, but that’s what you get with Hollywood. I’ll definitely see this movie when it comes out.
Michael Hirst doesn’t care about historical accuracy, but it will have lots of drama and tension just like Elizabeth, The Golden Age,The Tudors and Vikings, all of which he wrote. Margot Robbie will fit right in.
Oh it’s Michael Hirst. That’s a disappointment for me. The visuals of Elizabeth were gorgeous, but I kept squirming through all the historical inaccuracies. I kept saying – wait a minute – that didn’t happen then – no that’s the wrong Duc d’Anjou etc. So he’s the one behind The Tudors – oh yuck. As for young Joe, he is handsome and I’m sure talented. I wish him luck.
Justme: me too. Lol.
…..but the saving grace of Elizabeth for me was Cate Blanchett and the tension of the era perfectly captured. Otherwise the historical inaccuracies were like nails to blackboard.
@LAK – oh I agree about Cate – she was wonderful in the role (almost as good as Glenda Jackson in the series – but then Glenda had a whole miniseries to develop the character). Joe is also going to be in a movie about Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill and Abigail Masham (already filmed, it is called The Favourite – he plays Samuel Masham – I would doubt it is an enormous role). This is also a period of history of great interest to me (and also was part of one of those great BBC miniseries of the 1970s, The First Churchills). I hope that we get a glimmer of historical accuracy from that one anyway. What actually happened in the past is often surprisingly more interesting than romanticized versions. (Lonely history major cry here.)
What’s confusing is that Deadline said that Beau Willimon (who wrote House of Cards) wrote the screenplay. Which could be interesting.
@Amy – IMDB also has Willimon as the screenwriter. Maybe HR got it wrong?
Amy: House of Cards is originally British tv show starring Ian Richardson playing the Kevin Spacey role.
The TV show is itself an adaptation of a same titled novel written by Michael Dobbs who was chief of Staff of the Tory party during the 80s. It borrows heavily from Shakespeare’s Richard 3 and Macbeth (author’s comments) which are fantastically written plays about the machinations of power. Frankly, to set it within Thatcher’s Tory party was a master stroke because it had those characters. Sometimes you wonder how much of it is fiction and how much fact.
The writing room of the American TV show includes a couple of writers from the original British show eg Andrew Davies who is very good at adapting source material previously shown and making it seem new as well as Michael Dobbs himself.
That’s not to discount Beau Willimon completely, just to point out the production/ writers of House of Cards.
No one tops Cate as Elizabeth I – all hail the queen.
Just darker hair and a goatee and he can totally look like Robert Dudley!
http://www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/robertdudley
I know Hollywood takes licence with history, but casting this boy (because that’s how he photographs) as Dudley opposite Robbie is really idiotic.
Elizabeth and Dudley were contemporaries and mid-30s when Mary was imprisoned in England. Casting Dudley with an actor who looks like a teenager to play a 30something man is bizarre. Would Robbie, who looks older than her actual age and therefore cast perfectly really pine for a toyboy? It makes no visual sense.
Josie Rourke, who is the director of this movie, directed the Donmar stage production of Coriolanus a couple years back with Tom Hiddleston in the title role. Such a little world.
O RLY shocked that this super private relationship might be used as a career boost!
Also he looks so young compared to Margot. Seems like a mismatch
Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth? bwahahahaha Get the mantle ready for the Razzies.
I know the filming for this movie has not even started, but I can already say that between Robbie and Ronan this guy is not gonna exist. He is so bland and boring. I can’t buy for one second that Queen Elisabeth would look at him.
@Kaiser you are very kind to include his name in the headline. I saw this story on several websites including People as just “Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend cast in new film”.
OUCH! Big time ouch!
If this turns out to be a major film and he gets good reviews than maybe it won’t matter. If it doesn’t and is minor at best (and I don’t mean flop, I mean like Z for Zachariah level) this is not healthy for a young up and comer at all. At all.
Yup. I don’t think you can say that he “wasn’t getting much work”, the kid is literally fresh out of school. He had a pretty incredible start. But this is what happens. From here on, everyone will say he’s only getting jobs because of Taylor (which is BS, but whatever)
Which is true, but also clearly why he’s “dating” her. There, fixed it for you.
But if Taylor can get you work, why wasn’t Hiddleston getting all the jobs during his (far more) high profile romance with Taylor?
Sorry I dont buy Taylor influenced the directors choice, she is a renowned British stage director, perhaps american producer likes that they know Alwyn will get some publicity because of Taylor though. But then again I doubt this movie will be a blockbuster because one of the leads is Taylors alleged boyfriend. People dont see movies for those reasons.
I partly agree. Hiddleston was already working when he was with Swift. He had also made a number of movies and a mini-series just before meeting her, so getting jobs was not an issue. What you say about Swift’s lack of influence is correct. She is in a different realm of show business. The danger for Alwyn, as Mia points out above, is with name recognition, being known primarily as her boyfriend.
I see, but this article sort of says Alwyn wasn’t getting work. I think thats a slight misrepresentation . He is a guy who graduated recently from a very distinguished drama school in London ( The Royal Central School-Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and tons of great actors from that school, most recently Andrew Garfield who is earning rave reviews for Angels in America at The National Theatre ). He has already scored jobs with Oscar winning/nominated directors such as Lee and Lanthimos and worked with some stellar actors in that year since he graduated, so hes way ahead of the heap of recent graduates already. The fact that such good directors cast him as an unknown makes me think he must have something. Lee is an actors director.
And since this job he just scored is with a British director and production company, if this guy is a hot shot that recently graduated from one of the top colleges he would be on people like Josie Rourkes mind anyway. That is how the British industry works, If you come from Rada, Central or Lamda and especially if you are white guy and even better posh or upper middle class you get a foot in the door. This guy was always gonna do ok if he is a decent actor, just like Hiddleston was always gonna do ok. But like Hiddleston he might feel its helpful to raise his profile by being associated with Taylor.
I totally agree with the dangers though. He needs to keep a very low profile with Swift if he wants to be taken seriously for his work. If he is actually talented this could do more harm than good.
I definitely think Swift gave him a big bump in publicity, but he was already working with Yorgos Lanthimos. Basically, she’s not the only reason he was cast….
Also, while Margot is extremely talented I can’t help but think tackling Elizabeth is a big mistake. People will unfairly compare her to another young Australian (Cate) who played Elizabeth and there is no way in hell Margot can live up to that comparison.
Sigh. I’m old enough to remember thinking Mark Lester was cute in Tiger Beat. Joe Alwyn pales by comparison. If you’re a closet Tudor fan, “friend” The Anne Boleyn Files on Facebook.
“I’m sure Tom Hiddleston thought the Tiddlebanging would be great for his career too. ”
Hey, Celebitchy, the Humane Society called; they’re talking about picketing due to how badly you’ve beaten that horse’s skeleton into the ground.
Meh! Hes not getting acting jobs because of swift. Not this type of quality jobs anyway. Maybe if it was some trashy American project with lots of b list actors. This project got talent through and through.
I am sure he will get more publicity when hes promoting the movie. But by then who knows if he still swifts bf. Based on her past history her relationships only lasts a few months.
Honestly when I saw the “….scores a major role in a costume drama…” my evil mind conjured up pictures of a rocky beach, vests with hearts and fluffy animal pastry.
Other than that brief amusement, I have nothing else to contribute. 🙂
His feathered hair tho…
Interesting that so many on here find him boyish looking, IMO he looks older than his age?
Also, casting Margot Robbie as Elizabeth = not a good idea.
How has Taylor Swift have anything to do with this? The guy was Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn – surely that should open some doors.