When Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift first started happening in 2016, it felt like Tom was trying to take advantage of his raised profile. Suddenly, he booked a Prada Gucci campaign and he was being constantly discussed for James Bond, and he just became extremely overexposed. What was weird is that… Tom had a really great career before the Tiddlebanging even started, but he suddenly looked so thirsty, and like he was trying to parlay his relationship for career advantage. I bring this up because I think Taylor learned a lot from that, and I think Joe Alwyn examined the effects of Tiddlebanging too. When JoeTay first started happening, I rolled my eyes at the idea that Taylor could make this pale English actor into a “thing.” But guess what? She made him into a thing.
Joe Alwyn has been in four films this year – Operation Finale, Boy Erased, The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots. The last three films are awards-season contenders, especially The Favourite. While Joe will not be nominated personally for anything big, his attachment to one or more “Oscar contenders” will absolutely help his career in huge ways. And he did it all without whoring out his relationship with Taylor. It’s a Christmas miracle! Anyway, Joe has a feature in the latest issue of Esquire, which you can read here. Some highlights:
Playing Robert Dudley in Mary Queen of Scots: “He isn’t driven by politics and ambition and power in the same way as the other male characters. The others try to circle the women and use them for their own advantage. That’s not to say that my character is incapable of doing that, but he has higher priorities or higher feelings—his love and loyalty to Elizabeth.”
His big break in Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. “It’s still the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. Since that film, I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to find projects where, if there were supporting roles where I could learn and be surrounded by a great cast of actors and filmmakers and crew, then that was what I wanted to do.”
He approaches his work with humility: “I still find it a strange readjustment when you go back to set. To do your work in a way where you don’t feel anxious and completely consumed by anxiety, it takes experience and practice.”
Whether anyone (like Taylor) gave him guidance on fame: “I didn’t seek out advice on that. Because I know what I feel about it. I think there’s a very clear line as to what somebody should share, or feel like they have to share, and what they don’t want to and shouldn’t have to.”
Yeah, it’s kind of a boring interview. But that’s a good thing, long term. Taylor doesn’t want a boyfriend who is going to spill his guts in Esquire or GQ. My question is this: do you think after the Tiddlebanging, Taylor sat down and figured out some rules for her boyfriends, and how quickly did Joe get with the program? Or maybe this is just who he is – discreet, and happy that Taylor is “the star” and not looking to compete with her at that level.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
If Taylor was a man, Joe is exactly what she would look like. She chose her doppelganger.
You’re right! He looks like Taylor Swift in drag.
They both have those squinty eyes. They each saw themselves in each other. Perfect match.
I always think he looks, bizarrely, like a mix of Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal.
And Karlie Kloss. And Calvin Harris, lol. Taylor has a type.
@Case lol, ain’t that the truth!
And dont forget Harry and dianna argon
She mostly dates people piercing eyes
I feel like I’m the only person who thinks they don’t look alike.
But his profile has ABSOLUTELY been boosted because of his association with her. I don’t think he has large roles in any of these films, and yet I’ve seen him doing press alongside the main stars. I’m sure he’s a good actor to have been chosen for these roles, and perhaps he’s a rising star just like other young actors in Hollywood, but being Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend has definitely helped him in terms of media exposure and interest, no doubt.
I think all of Taylor’s past relationships were mutually beneficial. Perhaps they used her for fame or exposure (although people like Taylor Lautner, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Hiddleston didn’t exactly need her for fame at the time they were dating her, IMO), but she uses them too — for her album narratives, to project a certain image, to distract from bad headlines. She only stopped doing pap walks with boyfriends when she got called out on it with Tom while the Kimye drama happening at the same time.
In any case, they seem to be a good match. Good for them. I’m critical of Taylor’s games, but I do genuinely like her and think she’s a good-hearted person.
You said it. The amount of exposure and press he’s gotten this year is out of proportion with his work. He’s done ALL the press, way more than his 10 minutes of screen time warrants. He’s also had 6 or more major photo shoots with most of the top-line magazines – including Esquire, GQ, W, and Vogue. That kind of coverage doesn’t just happen organically, even if you’ve been anointed the Next Big Thing. There is a huge PR push happening for him, and it’s the opposite of everything he’s said about privacy, and doing good work without fanfare, and disappearing into each role, yada, yada, yada.
What I can’t decide is if his “I’m so private” mantra is the result of his own PR team seeing what happened during Hiddleswift and telling him, for the sake of his career, to keep his yap shut about Taylor, or if the strategy came from Swift herself knowing she’d get skewered too if he was suddenly appearing in magazines with the caption of “Taylor’s Swift’s boyfriend”.
I’m happy for them that they seemed to keep their relationship fairly low profile. She needed that. And I think this is just who he is.
I also think this is who he is. I have seen a couple of his interviews and he’s not a showy person. He’s nothing like Hiddleston who will put on a show when he’s promoting. This guy is very low key.
Nie doesn’t have personality, this is why he is like that in interviews. I watched one and he looks so uninterested. So you character is different in book, he had even different name. Joe: really? I didn’t read a book.
How you wanted to play this character? Joe: director said that I should do this and this, do I did. 🙂 It must he pleasure to work on set with such a plant.
And Hiddles isn’t putting a show. He, like any normal actor, is promoting his movie, us exating about his work
But you are a Swiftie here, so you must to love “empty eyes” Joe.
He just conjures up a big MEH from me, although that beard needs to be shaved unless he can fill it out a bit.
I do like that they’ve managed to be pretty lowkey about their relationship for the past two years.
A great year? I mean yeah he is in those movies but he has small parts that no one is going to remember.
But he is in prestige pieces with some of the best actors and directors out there. He is honing his craft and becoming known to and liked by the best of the best. He obviously wants to be a serious character actor as opposed to a STAR and in that sense he is making all of the right moves. A good character actor can have a very long career indeed. Also, if he keeps improving then these fantastic directors and moe powerful actors he is working with will eventually offer him or suggest him for bigger and bigger roles. I admire the path he has chosen for himself.
While I love men with beards, his is just a big nope. And while he may not be putting his relationships with Taylor in the media, his association with her has absolutely helped him..and we really don’t know how much of a boost he has gotten from her behind the scenes either.
If Joe was a woman and Taylor was a man, everyone would be talking about how the woman benefited from being in the relationship. I don’t think it’s unfair to say that dating her has given him a higher profile. I mean would you even be writing about Joe on this blog if he wasn’t dating Taylor Swift? I don’t think so.
He has great hair, but that neckbeard is yucky.
I’ve been impressed by the media game they’ve played with their relationship. He definitely got a boost from being with Taylor but it’s not so obnoxious. I feel sad for Tom–I knew about and loved him before the Taylor thing, and I think he got totally burned.
Never heard of this guy before taylor, but… hope they find happiness. He seems smarter in this interview than I assumed.
he is… not cute.
But he absolutely HAS benefitted from Taylor. He moved from his parent’s house to her multiple mansions. Her private plane flies him around. He wears an extremely expensive watch that was a gift from her. He’s landed interview after interview that he would most likely would not be getting if he weren’t Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, parts in good movies or not. ( I say this based on other actors at similar stages in their careers with similar size parts in movies. Were they interviewed sometimes? Yes, absolutely. Did they have the kind of profile and advantages he is given? No.)
I don’t say any of this to judge him. If I were dating a multimillionaire I would absolutely have fun with it too. But rising young actor or no, he lives a lifestyle that absolutely takes what advantage his very famous, rich girlfriend can give him. He’s just better at LOOKING like he’s not doing that than Hiddles was.
Tom was in Gucci and Joe in Prada. this Joe nobody get all his roles and Prada ad after he start “dating” her. All articles about him is about her. I saw 3 movies this year with him and his roles was so do small that nobody notice. But still he has coverage like was second billed in them. It is all her PR. He get 100 times more that Hiddles, but nefua aren’t mean to him like to Tom.
If he married her, he will be me Swift to the end. If they break up he will be here ex to the end. All her exes had career before and after her. He was nobody who lived without parents and made one movie. Now he is know only as her BF, BCS his roles aren’t big.
Please let’s not pretend they were all so much better. She dated boybanders like joe Jonas and Harry styles and some teenager from the Kennedy family. Harrys styles was just a cute guy from a talent show who got lucky and at the time when he dated Taylor 1D were trying to break America and his management absolutely used the Taylor thing for that.This joe guy is actually educated at least.But I guess in the age of Kardashian’s you are a “nobody” if your not super famous. Such a tragic way to see human beings.
Oh Swiefties. He was and still is nobody in industry but he is treated like he is some big star. This is what he gate from Snake. And don’t worry, after she finished with him, you finally could stop pretending that you are his oh so big fan 🙂
No one would know his name if he wasn’t associated with Taylor, and if the roles he’s had are as small as people say, the only reason we would even make note of him in those films is because of her.
The perks are happening more subtlely and bts, but let’s not forget the staged pap strolls they’ve done (mostly the hiking one where he was literally in wardrobe to tie him to a lyric in a song she released around that time, and the July 1 ones they did in another country wearing patriotic swimsuits). He is definitely benefiting from his association with her, and w.e that’s fine, but let’s not buy this bs that he’s not using it to boost his profile.
Also, knowing how controlling and image conscious she is, it’s my opinion that the whole thing with Tom suddenly seeming fame thirsty was her grooming his image to fit more with hers. He went along with it and it majorly backfired on both of them.
Taylor is not private, she’s just very controlling of her image (which is her perogative), and she HATES any negative publicity or criticism, she cannot take it. I genuinly think if the whole Tom thing had been received better, she would have never played the “privacy” image she’s selling now.
This. She is playing private now. When she will feel that people forget about her thirst, she will be selling this fake RS like crazy. I bet Joe has engagement in his contract. I predict eng. At Christmas so she could show her ring (which she will buy herself, BCS he doesn’t enough money to buy one) during GG and Oscars. Let’s be honest, if he was some Joe Smith who is unknown actor, with 3 very small roles this year, you all will be so suspicious that he has such a coverage in media. People will ask who promote this guy (like when Harvey promoted no names like crazy, yo give than career). Why Holtz or Jack C. David Tennant, who are true second actors in this movies, didn’t have photoshoot s and interviews, but guy who have two sentences in movie is promoting. I’m wondering what other actors think about such blatant PR for Joe.
Absolutely agree with you. Although I do think Tom really enjoys being recognized and getting attention, so I don’t think that was all Taylor grooming him to act a certain way, necessarily. She certainly used him to distract from the Kanye drama and it all played out the way most of her previous romances did on camera (meeting parents, sight-seeing, etc.). She was definitely calling the shots, but Tom happily participated. (BTW, I say this with all the admiration and love in the world for Tom. I think he’s extremely talented and incredibly kind, but I also think in his first several years of true fame, he soaked it up, which is perfectly fine. Now he’s over that phase, lesson learned.)
Because that backfired so hard is why we’re getting the new, “private” Taylor with her seemingly private boyfriend. It’s strategic, and it’s working, so good for them. But I don’t think a more private relationship should be confused with the idea that her current boyfriend isn’t benefiting from this relationship. Of course he is.
@So cool
Interesting… Now that you mention it I could totally see there being specific things in a contract he’d need to do or agree to do at certain times. Would explain why he would do those pap strolls but still maintain the narrative he’s super private and doesn’t want to rip the benefits of fame by association (even thought as we’ve all noted, he clearly does). Everything else about her is so calculated, It easy to believe things like this relationship has contractual things he/they must do (for their public image).
@Case
Ah okay i hear, yah. I honestly didn’t and still don’t know much about Tom, so it’s easier for me to comment on what i perceive she does based on what we know about her. I never heard of Tom doing anything extra like the things he would do with Taylor, before he met her, but he is an actor and part of that does have a lot to do with doing w.e they can to raise their profile. And honestly if Tom is more transparent about that than say guys like Joe, then i respect that more. ’cause people that doth protest to much about earning fame, while they actively play the fame game, is suspect to me, and frankly unnecessary. Just own the hustle.
The funny thing is I highly doubt Taylor likes dating a nobody. She’s dated a lot of famous men. In fact she goes after them when they hit their peak in public goodwill. Joe was an actual nobody and her PR had to work really hard to build him up to a somebody. This just shows me that she cannot bear being with a nobody. So if he is, she has to “make” him. If he ever becomes more famous than her, her ego can’t take it. But I doubt he will be. So yes they are a perfect match.
With this Joe kid, he’s very definitely benefiting but I doubt he’d want people to think that hence redirection in his interviews.
For Tom, he was private before her and simply reverted back, but took it a bit further.
But is he a somebody? Few people know him and only bcs of her. All his “fans” who are praising him are her fans. Few days ago some guy met his on street and said he know who Joe is and that he is a fan. And then he gave Joe photo of Tay Tay to ut autograph 🙂 This is his future. She will give him a little PR (interview, photo, some small role) but it is all. In some article about how he want to put ring on her finger, there are some great lines (Tree write them for sure). That Tay Tay loves that he is ok to be in her shadow, that she is a star in that RS, that her career is most important. Great RS 🙂 And now what we will said about a guy who are talking like that about his GF? I think TS is only in love with TS. Her idea about RS is that everything must be about her, around her.
Never realized Celebitchy readers are so picky! This is a cute little dude, here, especially if he shaved his neck.
He’s not my type but he’s perfectly decent looking. I don’t think he’s less attractive than her exes. She seems to be obsessed with blonde British guys.
To be honest I think half of the sour grapes about this guy on this site is coming from Hiddleston fans who are just transferring their negative feelings from Taylor to this guy lol!
I wasn’t prepared to like this guy because of the TS sitch but he was actually pretty good in Mary Queen of Scots. Sexy, even. So, okay, let’s see what else he can do.
The MQOS promo photo I’ve seen of him is honestly the first time I’ve thought of him as even remotely attractive. Was the movie itself good? I’m on the fence about going to see it.
He was good in Operation Finale, and I was pleasantly surprised by him in Mary, Queen of Scots (which was a different type of role, obviously lol). He’s working with the right type of directors/projects, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to build a long career even if he never becomes more than a character actor/supporting player type.
He is a cute little corn muffin and so is she. I hope they are happy together.
Meh, I think people forget that he was the lead in an Ang Lee film before he even started dating Taylor. Granted, the film bombed (primarily because of the weird film technique that bothered the viewers, not him), but once someone like Ang Lee or Soderbergh chooses someone to lead their film, that carries a lot of weight with other directors. I don’t think Yorgos Lanthimos went “hm, get me Taylor’s boyfriend” to play Emma’s love interest. If he was starring in your average popcorn film, the Taylor thing might have factored in, but not supporting roles/character actor type work in period pieces, indies, etc.
Now, while I absolutely believe he got his roles on his own merits the oversize coverage he’s received on the promotion trail is due to Taylor. But he also seems sincerely happy for her to have the spotlight (unlike Calvin Harris) and he doesn’t seem to have any ambitions beyond being a character actor, which might be a good thing for Taylor.
The problem is – in none of this movies he has a supporting role. He is in like 2 scenes and maybe in 2 minutes. There are male actors who are lead or supporting and they didn’t get such PR part in movie promo. I don’t think that some director care if he is her boyfriend. His roles are so small that I think they don’t give a s*it who will play this characters.
2 minutes is a vast exaggeration. There’s no supporting male role in the faveorite. The males are all small parts it’s all about the women.. but he’s definitely in it for longer than 3 min.. and also he’s not 37 or 40 like Hiddleston and the rest of the Brit actors he’s young actor who graduated from college a few years ago. Picking small parts in good projects where he is constantly working with well respected actors or interesting directors in prestige projects rather than doing bigger parts in projects that aren’t prestige ( which is realistically what he would be doing if he was chasing bigger parts ) is actually a smart strategy, and it’s what an agent/ manager that wants to build longevity would advise. So I don’t really see the problem with the parts being small. And I agree with div if you see this guy talk in interviews he doesn’t come across as someone who needs to be centre stage. Unlike Calvin, Harry and Hiddleston he genuinely seems like a low key personality.
Yeah THE FAVOURITE began filming in March 2017, he was probably cast in 2016
I don’t believe for a second this relationship is real, it’s just another mutually beneficial PR-relationship which Swift is stage-managing using a new tactic because the way she stage managed her last PR relationship backfired so badly (yes, Hiddleston played along with the Best!Romance!Ever stuff but his personal life has always been kept completely private both before and after Swift; he wasn’t the one calling the paps or staging Taymerica pap stunts; that was all Swift calling the shots).
“Super Private RelationshipTM” is just another PR stunt, which is massively befitting this guy’s career and image. It’s hardly a coincidence that at the exact same time Swift becomes PrivateTM (while screaming about how super private she is) she lands a boyfriend who is also “private” (while also constantly screaming about how super private he is).
I don’t even like Taylor much but do people not understand films take a long time to go from pre production to actual showing in cinemas?
He had already booked the favourite and boy ereased when he got with Taylor. Apparently his costar Emma Stone introduced them.. So no Taylor didn’t get him those jobs. As for small parts yes but they are high profile projects. And he’s a trained actor from one of the best drama schools in the U.K. so this isn’t like amber heard getting small parts because Johnny Depp. He can actually act and he’s a tall white male English guy with decent looks who snagged a great agent when Ang Lee cast him straight out of drama school so chances are he would be seen for this kind of stuff anyway. He got cast by Ang Lee straight out of drama school which is a great start by any measure.
I do think he gets more press because he is seeing Taylor though. But if he keeps his mouth shut they will probably loose interest.
🙂 you are a hardcore Swiftie, so stop with this “I even don’t like her so much but she is ich so perfect jyst like her fake VF and cats”. You are going Gaga when there is articles about her and her BF.