Anne Hathaway's role in new movie Mother Mary was inspired by Taylor Swift.

The 43-year-old actress takes on the role of a pop star who has a "psychosexual affair" with a fashion designer, played by Michaela Coel, and now director David Lowery has revealed Swift's Reputation concert film played a huge part in inspiring some of the scenes.

He told Empire magazine: "Her Reputation concert film is one of the best concert films ever. It's truly phenomenal. And for our concert sequences we looked at that repeatedly. You would not believe the amount of time we were talking about Taylor."

The moviemaker added: "We took three songs from Reputation and broke it down, shot by shot, and looked at them like: 'Okay, if we were doing these, how much would these shots cost to do in visual effects?'

"We used that as a budgeting tool, because we didn't know how to wrap our heads around actually pulling off a stadium concert-show on a minimal budget.

"We were literally using Reputation as a guide. I can go on about Reputation all day."

Lowery revealed he attended one of Swift's concerts with Hathaway and the actress even gifted him a friendship bracelet inspired by the singer.

He said: "When we wrapped, Annie gave me a Taylor Swift style beaded bracelet with 'Anti-Hero' on it. I definitely brought a lot of Taylor Swift to the table in terms of who Mother Mary was.

"I would often would be like: 'Imagine Taylor Swift in 10 or 15 years,' that's sort of who this character could be."

It comes after Hathaway admitted she found the movie challenging because most of the music wasn't completed by the time filming started - so she had to go ahead without knowing any of the songs.

She told Vogue magazine: "I had to submit to being a beginner. The humility of that - showing up every day knowing you're going to suck.

"And it has to be okay. You're not 'bad'. You're just a beginner. Getting to that mindset - I had to shed some things that were hard to shed. It was welcome. But it was hard, the way transformational experiences can be hard."

She added: "It was so confusing. I had to learn … because if I'd had the music a year before we ever turned a camera on, I would have tattooed every note of it on my soul, and there would have been a whole process, very specific.

"And that was not available to me. In the end, I am very grateful I could not take control."

Mother Mary hits cinemas later this month.