Lupita Nyong’o has shared how she reached out to Taylor Swift for permission to include her song “Shake It Off” in her 2019 film “Little Monsters.”
On the Thursday, June 27 episode of “Hot Ones,” Lupita Nyong’o shared how she secured the rights to use Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” in the 2019 feature film “Little Monsters.”
“When I was working in London on Star Wars, I had a lot of self-doubt because it was the second thing I did. I was a little depressed. My best friend came to London and Taylor had just released ‘Shake It Off’ and he played it for me to cheer me up. We just jumped on my bed and danced and danced, and it lifted my spirits,” the star explained while eating spicy chicken wings.
Lupita Nyong’o said the opportunity to play the song on the ukulele years later in several scenes in “Little Monsters,” written and directed by Abe Forsythe, “meant a lot” to her. However, the producers were unable to use the artist’s song at first.
A winning bet
“When they came to me and said, ‘Oh, no, we can’t get the rights,’ I said, ‘OK, I’m going to go, I’m going to make a speech, I’m going to let Taylor know what this song means to me.’ I told her how it had pulled me out of a depression and before I knew it, it was all over. I haven’t seen her since to thank her,” she revealed.
The actress has since publicly expressed her gratitude, such as in an interview with and at the time of the film’s release in 2019, saying on camera: “I haven’t heard from her personally, but when I knew we had the song, I knew she heard me and I was so grateful. Taylor Swift, thank you so much. I hope you see the movie and I hope you feel that I took care of your song.”
Lupita Nyong’o will star in the American film “Quietly: Day 1”, a prequel to the 2018 film, in which she will play a young woman who struggles to survive an alien invasion in New York, alongside by Joseph Quinn, known for his role in “Stranger Things”.
