Bryce Dallas Howard Says Taylor Swift’s ‘Unapologetic Dorkiness’ Inspired Her ‘Argylle’ Character

Taylor Swift may not have secretly authored Argylle, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t at least a little bit present in the making of the book’s film adaptation.  

On the latest episode of The Graham Norton Show, leading lady Bryce Dallas Howard confirmed that, contrary to many a conspiracy theory, the 34-year-old pop star did not write Elly Conway’s debut novel Argylle under a pseudonym, nor did Swift officially have anything to do with the upcoming film inspired by the spy book. “We can’t pretend she was involved,” the actress said during the Friday (Jan. 26) episode, per People. 

However, Howard went on to say, “The reality is [Swift] was in many ways a great inspiration.” “She is a cat lady,” continued the Jurassic World star. “She’s got this awesome backpack with a cat in [it] that she walks around with. She loves a good argyle sweater, and there is a sort of unapologetic dorkiness about her. That’s a little bit like what my character is like.” 

Hitting theaters Feb. 2, Argylle follows Howard’s character, Elly — a novelist and doting cat mother — as she accidentally becomes involved in the dangerous world of secret agents after discovering that her fictional spy books mysteriously foreshadowed real events. The flick also stars Henry Cavill in the titular role, as well as Dua Lipa, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Ariana DeBose, John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson. 

And because very little is known about the real Elly Conway, who has zero known social media presence, questions about the author’s identity started to arise last year. That’s when some Swifties began noticing certain connections between Argylle and Swift, namely the inclusion of a Scottish Fold cat — the breed of the “Anti-Hero” singer’s first two cats, Meredith Grey and Olivia Benson. 

Director Matthew Vaughn, however, has been quick to shut their suspicions down. “It is not true,” he told Entertainment Tonight earlier this week, conceding that there is indeed a strange “amount of odd connections” between film’s reference material and the 12-time Grammy winner. 

“It’s not Taylor Swift,” he also said in a Rolling Stone interview earlier this month. “And I say that because I imagine Taylor Swift has a load of people trying to jump on her bandwagon left, right and center, and I don’t want to be a part of that club.”