Maya Hawke says Taylor Swift has “hugely influenced” her music.
The Stranger Things star and folk singer, 27, will release Maitreya Corso – the follow-up to 2024’s Chaos Angel – on May 1, and in a recent interview, she reflected on how much influence the Fate of Ophelia star has had on herself and countless others.
She told Rolling Stone: “I think she inspired a generation. She made a generation of young people listen to music and think, ‘Oh, wow, my life could matter. My feelings could matter. The details of it could matter.’ And of course it’s a Blakean thing, the minute particulars — the more specific you make something, the more relatable it actually is. But I was hugely influenced by her. I’ve been listening to her music my entire life. You could start any song from any word and I would be able to know where you were and finish it, probably.”
Maya also revealed the track Lioness from her forthcoming LP Maitreya Corso is about her Stranger Things co-star Sadie Sink, 23, and a day on the set of the hit sci-fi series where she inspired her.
She said: “I was actually talking about working on Stranger Things.
“There was a day where I was really grumpy and not feeling inspired. And I came into set as a background player in a scene she was in, and I remembered how magical acting is. I just watched her pick a spirit out of the universe and make the whole room quiet and speak truth and turn something from a game of playing pretend into something extremely authentic. It was a kick in my butt — bring it every time, every second. Don’t get lazy for one second. When I was at drama school, I used to complain — 80 per cent of the day is magic, but 20 per cent is total bull honky. And then I started working, and I was like, ‘Oh, whoa, 80-20 is a high percentage of magic.’ And that was a moment where I was like, ‘You are shrinking the ratio. You are losing touch with the magic. It’s not the art that’s depressed. You are.’ I think she’s the greatest actress of our generation.”
Maya and Sadie played Robin Buckley and Max Mayfield, respectively, on Stranger Things.