Idris Elba found co-hosting the 2016 Met Gala with Taylor Swift “a little awkward” because she was feuding with rapper Kanye West, who was also in attendance.
The Luther star was appointed co-chair alongside British designer Jonathan Ive, Vogue’s Anna Wintour, and the Shake It Off singer for the star-studded gala, which is annually held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
On the night, Idris and Taylor were given the task of presenting an award, and he admits it was a little awkward that both Taylor and Kanye were in the same room as they were embroiled in an ongoing feud at the time.
“It was great. I felt really famous that day,” he told The New York Times. “It was a bit awkward because Taylor Swift and I had to present an award. We were walking through the crowd and obviously, there was a little beef between Taylor and Kanye. I didn’t know any of this. But I was there! And I was, like, ‘Oh, this is awks.'”
Taylor and Kanye’s feud dates back to 2009 when he interrupted her acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards because he didn’t think she should have won the Video of the Year award over Beyonce. They buried the hatchet over the years, but their feud reignited in early 2016 when he debuted his track Famous, in which he rapped, “I made that b**ch famous” and that he thought that they may have sex.
They ended up in a war of words, with Taylor claiming he didn’t get her approval for the lyrics, and Kanye saying he did. His wife Kim Kardashian later settled the matter by sharing videos of Kanye getting permission from Taylor during a phone call.
It is thought Taylor referred to the incident in the video of her new single Look What You Made Me Do. She stars as a celebrity, thought to be mash-up of Katy Perry and Kim, and at the end, the character films something on her phone and when asked what she’s doing, she replies, “Getting receipts, gonna edit this later.”
