Ian McKellen Once Said That Taylor Swift Had Him Thrown out of His New York Apartment
Taylor Swift once made X-Men star Ian McKellen’s living situation slightly more difficult than it needed to be. Just as McKellen was getting comfortable in his new spot, Swift decided to make the place her own.
Ian McKellen had to move out of his new spot because of Taylor Swift
Since achieving mega-stardom, Swift has been purchasing a lot of real estate to own several homes away from home. But at one point, expanding her territory came at the cost of McKellen’s own comfort. According to Contact Music, Swift purchased property in New York from Lord of the Rings filmmaker Peter Jackson for $19.95 million. The problem was Jackson had McKellen living there at the time, and he was basically thrown out upon Swift’s purchase.
“When I was living in Peter Jackson’s apartment in New York, Taylor Swift bought it while I was there and I was thrown out before I wanted to leave,” McKellen said. “That hardly puts me in Taylor Swift’s team, does it?”
But McKellen harbored no ill will towards Swift, and understood the situation.
“She bought it, she had every right to – I was just lodging there for free,” he added.
Swift apparently even invited the veteran actor to one of her shows, but McKellen couldn’t make it.
“She did ask me to appear with Patrick Stewart at her show in LA, but I had something else to do that night,” he said.
Taylor Swift once helped buy a fan of hers a home
Kicking people out of homes is far from the norm for the multi-time Grammy-winner. Instead, the generous artist has often helped put roofs over the heads of her close friends. She’s personally furnished their homes herself, which was more of a creative endeavor on her part. She once explained to Sirius XM that, if not the music business, she thought being an interior designer would be her calling in life.
“I would have gone to college probably for business. And I might have ended up following my passion for shopping for furniture and been an interior decorator. I’ve been known to, like, go into my friends’ apartments and fill it with furniture. And they get home and it’s like furnished. My friends, they don’t like — they don’t buy furniture, and I love buying furniture,” she said.
Swift’s generosity hasn’t only extended to her friends, however. It’s also extended to her fans. She’s been known to help her Swifties in financial times of need on more than one occasion. And according to E News, her charity once even helped a fan buy her own house. The fan shared that she was pregnant and homeless for 8 months, and her boyfriend at the time lost his job. After hearing the news from the fans’ mother, Swift was eager to help out.
“[Taylor] told me she wanted to give me the money back for my ticket that night. What she actually did was help us buy a home and all I needed for my baby. She told me ‘I want you to be able to enjoy your little girl, not have to worry about all this stuff,’” she said.
Have Ian McKellen and Taylor Swift ever done a movie together?
Taylor Swift hasn’t just focused all of her talents on singing. She’s been steadily building a film career for herself as well. She made her onscreen film debut in 2010’s Valentine’s Day. Her last appearance in a film was in the 2022 David O. Russell picture Amsterdam. The only time she crossed paths with McKellen in a project was in the 2019 feature Cats.
