Taylor Swift and her longtime best friend Abigail Anderson Berard have spent more than two decades speaking to each other in "Napoleon Dynamite" voices.
The superstar singer and songwriter shared the story at a New York City screening of "Toy Story 5" held on Nov. 1, followed by a Q&A and reception with co-director and screenwriter Andrew Stanton. Swift, who wore a black long-sleeve top, black leather pencil skirt and black heels, explained how the friendship between the film's characters Bonnie and Blaze reminded her of her own bond with Abigail. The two met as freshmen at Hendersonville High School, and Swift later wrote about their friendship in her 2008 song "Fifteen."
"When I moved to Nashville, when I was 14, you're the new kid in school,"
Swift said. "But there was one girl named Abigail, and she even has curly hair, too, like Blaze. And the two of us, all we wanted to do was talk in Napoleon Dynamite voices."
Swift mimicked the voice as she described how the friends still joke with each other. Anderson Berard, who appeared in Swift's 2020 Netflix documentary "Miss Americana," married Charles Berard in 2022 and announced her pregnancy in 2024 using lyrics from "But Daddy I Love Him."
"We still do this," Swift said. "It's something our husbands have to put up with."
Swift said finding someone who understands her sense of humor made the movie especially meaningful.
"When you find that person who just completely sees you for the strange little genre that is you at your purest, that hit me so hard watching the film," she said.
The screening comes amid awards buzz surrounding "I Knew It, I Knew You," which could earn Swift her first Oscar nomination. The original song from "Toy Story 5" is her 15th No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 − a first for Pixar. She performed the hit at the Academy Museum Gala on Oct. 17, in her first full-band performance since the Eras Tour.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Taylor Swift reveals longtime inside joke with best friend Abigail
