Lupita Nyong’o personally asked Taylor Swift to allow her to use her song in a horror film

A Quiet Place: Day One Star Lupita Nyong’o has announced that she personally asked Taylor Swift to approve the use of Shake it Off in a film.

Nyong’o revealed the story behind the use of Shake it Off in the 2019 horror comedy Little Monsters during the show Hot Ones. In that film, Nyong’o plays the optimistic teacher Miss Caroline, who protects her class from a zombie outbreak. The song is part of a sing-along number in the film, as Miss Caroline performs it on the ukulele.

For Nyong’o, having the song in the film was a personal priority.

Lupita Nyong’o shakes off negativity

“I was having a lot of self-doubt because it was the second one 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 put me in a better mood and we just jumped on my bed and danced and danced and it lifted my mood.”

When she read the script for Little Monsters, she was excited about the idea of ​​playing the role, but it wouldn’t have happened if Nyong’o hadn’t personally pushed for her to be in the film.

“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.”

It’s been five years since her first horror role. That same year, Lupita Nyong’o garnered critical acclaim for a stunning dual role in Jordan Peele’s Us.

In 2024, she returns to the genre in the prequel A Quiet Place: Day One, playing Sammy, a woman who teams up with a man named Eric (Joseph Quinn) and a cat named Frodo to survive an alien invasion of New York.