Cailee Spaeny Recalls Fangirling With Taylor Swift About ‘Mare of Easttown’ & Kansas City Chiefs

Cailee Spaeny lived a dream scenario at the 2024 Golden Globes: meeting Taylor Swift and discovering that her love for the pop star was mutual.

Both the 25-year-old actress and Swift were nominated for awards at the January ceremony, with Spaeny in the running for best actress thanks to her titular performance in Priscilla and the 34-year-old “Anti-Hero” singer’s Eras Tour concert film earning recognition for cinematic and box office achievement. And though the prizes went to Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone and Barbie, respectively, Spaeny could argue that meeting Swift was a win in itself.

“It was like I was looking at a real-life Disney princess,” she gushed of the 14-time Grammy winner in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday (April 10). “I was so inarticulate. I was like, ‘Your hair is so pretty,’ and I said to myself, ‘Oh my God, really!? Is that the only thing you’re going to say?’”

“I also said, ‘I’m a [Kansas City] Chiefs fan and I love you,’ but I didn’t know what to say,” she continued. “And she was like, ‘Yeah, it’s all in one place now.’ And I was like, ‘Exactly!’ So I don’t have many fangirl moments, but that one was a big deal. Anyone my age would agree that you can’t keep your chill in that moment.”

Spaeny, a Missouri native, made sure to specify that she’s been a fan of the Chiefs her whole life — and not just since Swift started dating tight end Travis Kelce in summer 2023. The Craft: Legacy actress also brought Bottoms‘ Ruby Cruz, her good friend and onetime co-star, as her plus-one to the Globes, and Swift had kind things to say to both of them about their performances in HBO’s Mare of Easttown.

“Taylor Swift brought up that she loved Mare of Easttown, which is so crazy, and Ruby went, ‘I’m in Mare of Easttown, too!'” Spaeny told the publication before marveling at Swift’s impeccable memory. “And then Taylor said, ‘But you were blonde in Mare of Easttown, weren’t you?’ So I don’t know what that says about Taylor. Maybe it’s just that she’s a massive Mare of Easttown fan, which is very cool.”

Both Spaeny and Swift are currently gearing up for the release of their latest projects, with the former’s Civil War, in which she stars alongside Kirsten Dunst, hitting theaters Friday (April 12). The latter’s new album The Tortured Poets Department arrives one week later, on April 19.