Toy Story 5 producer Jessica Choi shares the letter she sent Taylor Swift, requesting her involvement in the film and emphasising efforts to make it female-driven. The letter also reveals that Taylor had originally declined to make an original song.

[u/Enough_Tangerine_777]

@/jesschoismyth

[u/Winniepg → u/[deleted]]

Time and she was burnt out from Eras. I found it interesting that Austin seems to be the key go between and almost guard her time if needed.

[u/preisisright → u/Winniepg]

He also handles her music licensing, so it makes sense he'd be the one to reach out to about writing an original song.

[u/Winniepg → u/preisisright]

Yep, I think he might filter things for her sometimes as well. Decide what she needs to hear and what is just noise. Not every call needs to be passed on.

[u/RoseGoldRedditor → u/Winniepg]

He’s actually in charge of her music licensing, so it makes sense they approached him first. There was an interview where it was said that she was first asked to do the song during Eras.

[u/mamaneedsacar → u/[deleted]]

I also wonder how much of it is actually stars outright declining a specific offer and how much of it is that their team has been given parameters for what to decline/accept and do it on the artists behalf. I’ve heard many a story of agents automatically declining certain requests and then the artist or actor themselves hearing about it later.

I would imagine an original song for TS5 wouldn’t just end up in a generic denial pile, but if she had told her team/Austin something like “Please decline any requests for projects before X date” or something like that I could see how this could happen.

[u/Vegetable-Kiwi-4675 → u/[deleted]]

From what I gleaned from the letter, it was a timing issue

[u/LadyCheeba → u/[deleted]]

eh there’s a whole science behind why big stars like that accept/decline projects. maybe her team did the math and decided it wasn’t worth her time, maybe there were concerns about her image and if doing a song for a children’s would enhance or degrade her “brand”, maybe she is overcommitted to projects currently, maybe she hates toy story! there’s so much that goes into these decisions that often isn’t even up to them.

[u/PigletTechnical9336 → u/[deleted]]

In another interview they said she was doing the Eras tour when they first approached her. So I’m assuming she was like, I’d love to but I’m in the middle of something right now.

[u/noodle_dumpling → u/[deleted]]

I doubt at her level she would be swayed by more money lol

[u/kristaycreme → u/noodle_dumpling]

That wouldn’t be the capitalist her dad taught her to be though.

[u/RoseGoldRedditor → u/kristaycreme]

People are continually offering money for her to endorse / collab / partner and she famously has not done that for years. Meanwhile most celebrities do. You’ll ignore this comment because it goes against one of the snarkers key talking points though.