Joseph Matthew Alwyn (born 21 February 1991) is an English actor. He gained prominence through his role in the film The Favourite (2018). He was born in Tunbridge Wells and grew up in North London, and studied at the University of Bristol and the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Alwyn was romantically involved with Taylor Swift from 2017 to 2023. Under the pseudonym William Bowery, he co-wrote and produced several songs with her.
Filmography
- 2016: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk as Billy
- 2017: The Sense Of An Ending as Adrian Finn
- 2018: The Favourite as Masham
- 2018: Boy Erased as Henry
- 2018: Mary Queen Of Scots as Robert Dudley
- 2019: Harriet as Gideon Brodess
- 2019: A Christmas Carol as Bob Cratchit
- 2021: The Souvenir Part II as Max
- 2021: The Last Letter From Your Lover as Lawrence Stirling
- 2022: Conversations with Friends as Nick
- 2022: Stars At Noon as Daniel
- 2022: Catherine Called Birdy as Uncle George
- 2024: Kinds of Kindness
Discography (as William Bowery)
Tropes associated with Joe Alwyn:
- Celebrity Is Overrated: He has expressed many times disdain toward celebrity culture. This was stated to be one of the primary reason for his break-up with Taylor in 2023 because her fame had exploded too much for him to handle.
- Commonality Connection: He has a "Tortured Man Club" group chat formed by Andrew Scott with fellow Sally Rooney lead Paul Mescal.
- Fake Nationality: He has played a number of Fake Americans, as well as Fake Irish in Conversations with Friends.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Has a very luscious head of gold hair and Taylor frequently noticed this and characterized their love in her songs as "golden".
- Ladykiller in Love: Characterized by Taylor as being extremely desirable before the two of them got together. This is deconstructed since she expressesed feeling of irrational jealousy and insecurity because of this.
- Meaningful Name: His pseudonym first name William was a tribute to his late grandfather William Alwyn.
- The Muse: Served as inspiration for a lot of Swift's song during the time they were together, all the way back from 2017.
- Nice Guy: Frequently characterized by Taylor in her songs to be supportive and well meaning.
- Period Piece: Some of his most notable works, including The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots, are period pieces.
- Race Lift: When he was portrayed in the music videos from song based on their relationship, Taylor sometime use actors with different ethnicity:
- "Lover" music video has the love interest is portrayed by a black man Christian Owens.
- The love interest for "willow" (and retroactively "cardigan") is portrayed by a Korean American man Taeok Lee.
- The love interest for "Lavender Haze" is portrayed by a Dominican American man Laith Ashley.
- Reclusive Artist: He is notably private about his personal life, frequently declines to comment on interview question about his relationship with his family or Taylor. This was something Taylor noted that helped her lifestyle and mental health during her 2017 "Snakegate" time. However, this trope is severely Deconstructed because their break up is stated to be because he struggled to adapt with Taylor's explosive fame from 2022 to 2023.
- Signature Style: All of the songs he co-wrote with Taylor has a piano melody.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Frequently praised by Taylor for having beautiful blue eyes. So much so that post 2017, whenever she mentioned the color blue in the song, it is pretty blatant that the song is inspired by him.
