Taylor Swift's video for her song "Bad Blood" drops this Sunday, May 17 at the Billboard Music Awards, so she's been getting us suitably amped up for that event by revealing the cast one by one in the weeks leading up to the premiere. I've said before that she's an evil mastermind when it comes to promoting her projects, and this one is no different. With every new character she reveals with a feature film-quality poster, not only do we get more and more excited to see the finished product, we also get a little more insight into the people whom Swift considers her close friends. So, are Taylor Swift and Zendaya friends? They must be right, if she's featured in the video?
Along with Zendaya, there are the usual suspects like Karlie Kloss, Lena Dunham, Lily Aldridge, and Hailee Steinfeld, who are all over Swift's Instagram, but there were also some surprises, people we didn't realize she was friends with beforehand. There are older (compared to Swift, at least) women like Ellen Pompeo and Jessica Alba, but the main one I'm interested in is Zendaya.
On May 8, the 18-year-old actress/singer was revealed to be playing a character named Cut Throat, and all of a sudden I felt like I'd been driving my kid home from school for the whole school year, and she just name-dropped a stranger as if they've been besties the whole time. How did I miss this, Taylor?? Are you and Zendaya close? I decided to get to the bottom of it.
A lot of outlets caught photos of Zendaya on-set for the "Bad Blood" video at the time, and referred to her as a long-time buddy of Swift's, but if I'm being honest, I'm not finding a ton of proof of that. After all, this is Taylor Swift we're talking about — she isn't exactly shy about putting photos of her friends on social media, and I can't find a single one of her and Zendaya. In addition, it seems like the first time Zendaya ever spoke about Swift in an interview was after the pictures were snapped of her on-set, and even then it was only to deny that she'd worked on the top-secret video, saying, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
When asked if she'd ever collaborate with Swift, Zendaya was a little more effusive, saying yes, and adding, "She's the bomb-diggity. Who doesn't love Tay-Tay?" So it seems like even though these two aren't joined at the hip now, the way Swift is with some of her other BFFs, this might be the first step toward a long and productive friendship. Can't wait to see the video!
Image: Giphy
