The cat’s meow: How Taylor Swift’s feline inspired the spy thriller ‘Argylle’

Taylor Swift knows a thing or two about being catnip.

Indeed, the pop superstar worked all of her flirtatious feline wiles as Bombalurina in “Cats,” the much-maligned 2019 movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.

But Swift had a different kind of kitty persuasion on “Argylle,” the upcoming spy thriller starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, John Cena, Samuel L. Jackson and more.

Director Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass,” “X-Men: First Class” and the “Kingsman” films) says that it was the “Anti-Hero” singer who was “responsible” for the scene-stealing Scottish Fold cat featured in the film, which hits theaters Feb. 2.

It all started when Vaughn’s two daughters with his supermodel wife, Claudia Schiffer, convinced their mother to buy them a Scottish Fold for Christmas after seeing Swift’s cat in her 2020 “Miss Americana” documentary. 

“I got home one day, it was Christmas, and I was like, ‘What the f – – k is that noise?’” Vaughn told Rolling Stone. “It was bought without my permission and hidden from me.”

Now, the Vaughns’ Scottish Fold, Chip, is getting a close-up in “Argylle” as Alfie — after the original cat cast wasn’t cutting it.

“That was not by design; it was literally by default,” said Vaughn. “That first day of filming with the cat we had — this actor cat — wasn’t really working out, and I literally went to my daughter’s bedroom, because the cat sleeps with her, and I said, ‘Look, I’m gonna borrow the cat.’ And she went, ‘Fine.’

“I don’t think she realized it meant for three months,” he continued. “It was odd because he rode to work with me every morning, shared my trailer. But he was great. And he seemed to enjoy it as well. He was a natural. The nepo cat.”

While Vaughn insists “that is our only Taylor Swift connection,” there have been conspiracy theories that the 12-time Grammy winner is actually the pseudonymous author Elly Conway who wrote the “Argylle” novel that was published on Jan. 9 and is at the center of the film.

In fact, Conway carries her cat Alfie in an argyle-print backpack — much like Swift did in “Miss Americana.”

But despite the hitmaker’s well-documented affection for argyle, Vaughn shuts down any speculation that she is Elly Conway.

“I’m not a big internet guy, and it was actually my daughter who came up to me — this is the power of celebrity and the internet — and said, ‘You never told me Taylor wrote the book!’” said Vaughn.

“And I’m looking at her going, ‘What are you talking about Taylor Swift wrote the book? She didn’t write the book!’ And I was laughing because I was like, ‘It’s not true! She didn’t write the book!’ But my daughter was convinced of it.”