How Lupita Nyong’o got Taylor Swift to approve “Shake it Off” for the movie

Lupita Nyong’o and Taylor Swift

Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Lupita Nyong’o talks about her personal connection to Taylor Swift’s song “Shake It Off” and her efforts to incorporate it into her film. Little monsters.

While the appearance on the latest Name is consequence, the A quiet place: day one The star spoke about Swift’s hit single, which played at the end of her 2019 film Little monsters to sing along. Host Sean Evans asked if it was true that the actress had asked the music superstar to release the song after the film’s producers failed to do so.

“Correct. Yes,” Nyong’o revealed.

As she worked on it war of stars In London, Nyong’o said: “I was having a lot of self-doubt because it was the second thing I’d done. I was getting a bit depressed. My best friend came to London and Taylor had just released ‘Shake it Off’. And he played it to me to cheer me up and we just jumped on my bed and danced and danced and it lifted my spirits.”

After reading the Little monsters When writing the script, Nyong’o said she thought about the song and “what it meant to Miss Caroline and the kindergarteners,” adding, “It meant a lot to me to be able to play it on the ukulele and everything.”

When Nyong’o learned that she owned the rights to the song, which was featured on Swift’s 1989 album, she made it her mission to present her request to Swift and explain how the song had helped her during a dark time.

“When they came and told me, ‘Oh, no, we can’t get the rights,’ I decided, ‘OK. I’ll go, I’ll make an offer, I’ll let Taylor know what this song means to me,’ and I told her the story of how it pulled me out of a near depression, and before I knew it, it was all sorted,” she revealed.

Nyong’o will next play in A quiet place: Day one — a prequel to the 2018 original A quiet place – next to Stranger Things Breakout Joseph Quinn. In the film, Nyong’o plays a young woman with a cat named Frodo who fights for her safety during an alien invasion of New York City.