Los Angeles [US], June 26 : Actress Zoey Deutch has revealed that having two Taylor Swift songs featured in her new Netflix film 'Voicemails for Isabelle' held special significance for her as a self-proclaimed fan of the singer, according to People.
Deutch, 31, stars in the emotional drama opposite Nick Robinson, playing Jill, who finds herself connected to Robinson's character Wes after he accidentally begins receiving her voicemails meant for her late sister. Speaking to People in a recent interview, Deutch could barely contain her excitement about the film's soundtrack. "Okay, humblebrag but not humble, we have two Tay Swift songs. As a Swiftie? That's crazy," she said, to which Robinson added, "That's huge."
The film features Swift's songs "marjorie" and "New Year's Day" in key needle-drop moments -- the former soundtracking an emotional montage of Jill grieving her sister, and the latter appearing toward the film's conclusion as Wes reflects on Jill while wishing he could be with her on New Year's Eve. Deutch said she was genuinely surprised the songs made it into the final film at all. "I'm a Swiftie, and it meant a lot, clearly. I don't know how it happened," she said. "I'm thrilled. I saw the first cut. When I saw the first cut, I was like, 'Oh, it's temp music. What are you going to actually get there?'" She recalled director Leah McKendrick reassuring her otherwise: "No, we got them," according to People.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DZwgJUnKU8u/?hl=en
Beyond the needle drops, Wes also references one of Swift's songs directly in dialogue during a scene with his friends, telling them, "I'm sorry. The old Wes can't come to the phone right now. Because he's dead" -- a nod to a line from Swift's track "Look What You Made Me Do."
Director Leah McKendrick, 39, told ABC Audio that the placement of the two songs across the film's emotional arc was a deliberate choice. "In my mind, we have this girl who's yearning, longing, grieving, and we have the perfect song: 'Marjorie' just feels so right," she said, adding that the emotional weight shifts by the film's end. "But by the end, he's the one longing, yearning, grieving -- listening to Taylor Swift."
The film's score was composed by Este Haim and Amanda Yamate, with music supervision by Season Kent -- all of whom were enthusiastic about incorporating Swift's music. Haim, 40, who is part of the sister band Haim and is known to be close friends with Swift, told Tudum, "Any movie that has a Taylor Swift song, I'm in." Kent echoed the sentiment, revealing that securing "Marjorie" had initially seemed unlikely. "We're all fans of Taylor. 'Marjorie' was a song Leah had in mind before we started shooting, and we all felt it might be a long shot. Once we tried it in the cut, that was it -- we had to figure out a way to make it happen," according to People.
Haim and Yamate also told People that the film's broader musical choices shaped their approach to the score, particularly in its most emotionally raw scenes. "We knew off the bat that we were going to get to touch on the very raw scenes where [Jill is] talking to her sister, where she's feeling that grief," Haim said. "So, we felt like with live strings and with live vocal harmonies, that was going to bring a real, raw, human element to Jill's character."
'Voicemails for Isabelle' is now streaming on Netflix, according to People.