Off Campus’ Ella Bright Used This Taylor Swift Album To Become Hannah
The pop superstar “has a way of songwriting that Hannah really hones in on.”
Ella Bright is a self-proclaimed “huge Swiftie,” so when she got the role of aspiring songwriter Hannah Wells in Prime Video’s adaptation of the buzzy hockey romance series Off Campus, she knew exactly who to turn to for inspiration. Early in the show, Hannah’s bestie Allie encourages the classical composer to break out of her box and embrace the emotional lyricism of Taylor Swift. This line also motivated Bright to dive into Swift’s discography as a way to craft her portrayal of Hannah — and one album in particular pulled the most weight.
Prior to Off Campus’ premiere, Bright shared a playlist of the songs she used to get into character as Hannah, and Swift was the most featured artist. “Taylor Swift has a way of songwriting that Hannah really hones in on,” Bright tells Elite Daily. “There were a lot of songs that I found really related to her story.”
The six selections on Bright’s playlist bounced between eras, including “mirrorball” from folklore, “Guilty as Sin?” and “The Alchemy” from The Tortured Poets Department, and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” from Midnights. While Bright singles out the last track as “a big one” for Hannah’s characterization, it was 1989 that was most prominently Hannah-coded.
“‘You Are In Love’ and the whole 1989 album felt very connected to her storyline in a lot of ways,” Bright says. “And that’s my favorite album, so shoutout.”
Finding a musical north star was a great first step, but then Bright had to actually find her voice to perform several songs throughout the first season of Off Campus.
“I would not have classified myself as a singer in any respect before this,” Bright says. “I was really insecure and very nervous. And I was learning guitar and piano pretty much from scratch, because I was very stubborn about not wanting to use a hand double.”
But it all ended up working out: “It was so fun, and the music is such a cool part of the show. I was so surprised that it’s almost a musical in some episodes.”
