‘Where the Crawdads Sing’: Reese Witherspoon Reveals How Taylor Swift’s ‘Haunting’ Credits Song Came to Be
Producer Reese Witherspoon worked on Where the Crawdads Sing to highlight another female-led narrative on the silver screen. However, she never guessed just how many lives Delia Owens’ book touched around the world. Witherspoon recently revealed how Taylor Swift got involved in Where the Crawdads Sing and how she felt when she first heard the original song Swift created for the end credits.
Taylor Swift’s song ‘Carolina’ plays at the end credits of ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’
Where the Crawdads Sing follows an outcast named Kya Clark (Daisy Edgar-Jones). Her family abandoned her deep in a North Carolina marsh and she had to find a way to survive on her own. However, Kya must face the town that never treated her kindly after a popular boy (Harris Dickinson) turns up dead nearby. They believe that she had something to do with his death.
A dreamy boy named Tate Walker (Taylor John Smith) is the only man to treat her with kindness and a romance awakens. However, Kya’s interactions with all those around her are about to be judged by her peers in a court of law. Swift uses all of this as inspiration when she wrote her song, “Carolina,” which plays during the Where the Crawdads Sing end credits.
Reese Witherspoon reveals how Taylor Swift got involved with ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’
ET interviewed Witherspoon and Edgar-Jones about Where the Crawdads Sing, including about how Swift got involved in the film adaptation. The actor and producer highlighted the layers to the movie’s story, which would certainly go into the inspiration for the end credits song.
“You really don’t know if she did it,” Witherspoon said. “She’s so outcast from society, she’s treated so poorly by people, it’s really possible she might have committed this crime.”
“This film is so many things,” Edgar-Jones stated. “It’s a love story about survival and it’s also sort of a courtroom drama. There’s this really big thriller aspect to the film.”
However, Swift wrote and performed “Carolina” for Where the Crawdads Sing after the novel left a mark on her. Witherspoon absolutely loved the track and saw it fitting in wonderfully into the film’s end credits.
“It was just a call she made one day,” Witherspoon said. “She was so inspired by the book. It’s haunting, it’s beautiful, and it’s just the perfect way to end the whole movie.”
‘Carolina’ is earning early Oscar buzz for Best Original Song
It’s a bit early in Oscar season, but that didn’t stop Swift’s fans from predicting that she could earn a nomination for her Where the Crawdads Sing track. This past year, Billie Eilish took home the Oscar gold for Best Original Song for her title theme song to the most recent James Bond installment No Time to Die.
Swift fans around the world would certainly gush over seeing her win an Oscar for Where the Crawdads Sing. However, the question is whether the song will stick with voters through the remainder of the movie season. There’s still a long way to go with plenty of big titles to compete in the Best Original Song category.
