Tyler Hilton is looking back at his time working with Taylor Swift.

The former 2000s TV heartthrob, known for starring in the hit teen drama One Tree Hill, recently reflected on his experience with the “Cruel Summer” songstress nearly 20 years after appearing in one of her music videos when she was just starting out.

Hilton, 41, played the male lead in the music video for Swift’s “Teardrops on my Guitar” back in 2006, and after getting to know the singer, he was—well, “Enchanted.”

“I was just charmed by her and her family,” he said in a new interview with Us Weekly, revealing that after becoming “close” to Swift’s family, they let him live on their boat and at their home before he found an apartment in Nashville.

“They were just, like, the Swifts—like, my buds—and their little teenage daughter was a fan,” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘Aw, that’s so sweet.’ And now she’s the biggest star in the world.”

Hilton even got to hear some of the songs that would go on to be hits for Swift, now 35 and one of the top artists in the industry.

He told the outlet, “She was playing me ‘White Horse’ and it was crazy because I’m in her bedroom and I’m like, ‘Whoa, this girl is actually, like, princess, fairy, unicorn girl.’ It’s not an act—she actually had her songs written in, like, a fluffy diary and she is that nerd, you know what I mean?”

“That’s what’s so sweet about her and I think is responsible for her longevity—it’s not an act. She’s actually that much of a nerd and it’s so endearing.”

The Walk the Line actor even said he “actually can’t believe she became as famous” as she did.

“We all collectively thought she was so adorable. It is like when the nerdy girl in high school becomes famous, she is that earnest,” he said of Swift, who has since released 11 studio albums, four of which earned Album of the Year at the Grammys. “She’s like, ‘Do you wanna hear another song outta my diary?’ I’m like, ‘Oh, OK.’ And they were all really good, but it was just like, ‘This is so funny.'”