Lupita Nyong'o Reveals What She Said to Taylor Swift to Get Clearance to Use 'Shake It Off' in 'Little Monsters'
Lupita Nyong’o is opening up about her career while taking on the Spicy Wings of Death!
The A Quiet Place: Day One actress made an appearance on Hot Ones, where she answered burning questions from Sean Evans about her filmography.
During the discussion, Lupita talked about making scary movies, acting opposite a cat (and having a fear of cats), pitching Taylor Swift to clear “Shake It Off” for Little Monsters, breaking down Jay-Z’s lyric about being “on my Nyong’o” and more.
Keep reading to find out more…
On playing a silent role in A Quiet Place: Day One:
“When you don’t have lines and everything is in the nuance of bodily and facial expression, you have to listen in every take in a way more like nuanced way, so it makes it more exciting actually. I found it very liberating.”
On her fear of cats before working on A Quiet Place: Day One:
“…I was very afraid of cats before I took this film and it was one of the things that was holding me back from saying yes…”
On managing playing two characters in Us:
“When I did Us, playing both Adelaide and Red was a complete mindf-ck because they are…the opposite. It was almost like a mathematical calculation building both characters, it was very, very difficult to keep the lines straight and so it took a lot of very odd diagrams.”
On staying in character on set as Red in Us all day:
“The vocal posture was very difficult to get into so what I would do is at the beginning of the day, I would warm up and get into my vocal posture and then I would hold that all day. It just so happened that me holding my vocal posture made everybody on set really nervous…they would just be so awkward around me and it was so entertaining…”
On reaching out to Taylor Swift directly for “Shake It Off” clearance in Little Monsters:
“When they came and they told me ‘aw, no we can’t get the rights’ I decided okay. I’m going to go, I’m going to make a pitch, I’m going to let Taylor know what this song means to me and I told her that story about how it lifted me from an almost depression and the next thing I knew, it was cleared.”
On adjusting to being a public figure after Oscars win:
“…Yes, it was odd and it was overwhelming and it took me some time to adjust to it. To be a public figure, they have a projection of who you are, it’s bestowed on you and you kind of participate…Code shifting is very much a part of being human and so I code shift into my public persona…”
On Jay-Z’s lyric: “on my Nyong’o”:
“It’s this, it’s this right here. It’s like they’re coming at you, they’re trying to pull you down but you’re winning. That’s what being on one’s Lupita Nyong’o is.”
Watch the interview…
If you didn’t know, she also wore one of the most expensive red carpet outfits ever!