Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
Culture > Entertainment

Swifties Attacking Joe Alwyn’s Co-Star Emma Laird Was Not The Move

On April 8, multiple sources confirmed that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn had broken up after six years together. Throughout those six years, we got a glimpse into the couple’s lives together with Swift’s catalog of music. Despite the breakup, it seems like Swift is doing OK, spending her nights out on the town in New York and giving a thumbs up to a fan holding a “You OK?” sign. While no one knows how Alwyn is taking the split, we recently got updated on what he has been up to lately. 

On April 18, Alwyn’s co-star for the film, The Brualist, Emma Laird, posted some pictures on Instagram with the caption, “Moments in March ❤️🎥.” Among those pictures included a photo of Alwyn on a scooter (Alexa, play “London Boy”). While the post was initially meant to just be a photo dump of all that she’s been up to, the mood quickly changed after Swifties began attacking her in the comments with snake emojis, according to BuzzFeed News. So far, Laird, Alwyn, and Swift have not commented on the matter yet, though Laird is still posting to her Instagram story.

Though it seemed to be too much for Laird, considering she’s since turned the comments off on the post, that didn’t stop Swifties from harassing her with snake emojis on other Instagram posts and tweets as well as commenting lyrics to Swift’s song, “Better Than Revenge,” which she wrote after Joe Jonas had dated an actress after her. 

Now, I would like to apologize to Laird on behalf of all the Swifties, and hopefully she can see that we’re not all like this. (For what it’s worth, there are many fans that have taken to the comments section to defend Laird against the hate as well.) For those that happen to be leaving hateful comments on her posts, I just want you to think hard about what you’re doing. Did you not learn anything when Sabrina Carpenter released “Because I Liked A Boy?” We truly know nothing about the lives of celebrities. For all we know, there’s a good chance that Laird and Alwyn are just friends. Not only that, but Alwyn wasn’t the only man that Laird included in the post. She also posted a picture of Alessandro Nivola, another actor who will star in The Brutalist. Does that mean that she’s dating him as well? 

Swift has also been very outspoken about how she feels when people and the media accuse her of dating people that she isn’t actually dating. From her appearance on the Ellen Show in 2013 where she seemed visibly uncomfortable at the PowerPoint of rumored guys she was dating, to just recently in her song, “Lavender Haze,” Swift has made it known how uncomfortable it makes her when people try to make something out of nothing that’s there. Why would Swifties do the same to Laird just because she happens to be hanging out with their fave’s ex boyfriend?

If anything, this whole situation just proves that Alwyn has a right to want to keep his personal life private. He hasn’t even said anything about whether or not he’s dating someone yet and people are already making assumptions just from a single picture of him alone. He and Laird weren’t even in the picture together. 

Regardless of whether or not Laird and Alwyn are dating (which, TBH, seems like a reach from one Instagram post), it’s really none of our business. All that matters is that they, along with Swift, are happy and healthy. I hope that Laird doesn’t let this situation upset her too much and I urge you all to think before leaving a comment or speak on the situation without knowing all of the facts. 

Born and raised in Arizona, Kayleigh Shaw is a Her Campus National Writer. She mainly writes for the Culture section, primarily focused on the latest entertainment news, but will occasionally write about life and career, giving advice to a wide array of readers. Outside of Her Campus, Kayleigh was also a part of Rod Pulido’s Street Team for his debut novel, Chasing Pacquiao and completed social media challenges to promote the book. She also hopes to one day write for Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources. where she will continue to use her love of all things pop culture to her advantage. She also graduated from Glendale Community College in May 2022 with an Associate's Degree in English. When Kayleigh's not working on journalism pieces, she can be found writing poems and short stories, reading, watching TikToks, listening to their favorite podcasts, listening and dancing to Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift, watching movies and TV shows on Netflix and Hulu (while crying over fictional characters and relationships.) She would live in a library and avoid the rest of the world if she could. She also drinks coffee like a Gilmore and often goes down rabbit holes researching their hyper fixations.