Taylor Swift Granted A Movie Permission To Use One Of Her Songs After Its Star, Lupita Nyong’o, Told Her The Deep Personal Connection She Had To It

For context, the movie stars Lupita Nyong’o as kindergartner teacher Miss Audrey Caroline, and Alexander England as a washed-up musician named Dave. Together, the two find themselves responsible for protecting a group of young schoolchildren during a sudden zombie outbreak.

After they manage to survive all manner of ordeals, the group is rescued and placed in a quarantine together in case of infection. The final scene shows Audrey playing the ukulele while she and Dave sing “Shake It Off” to the young children in a bid to lift the mood.

The kids also join in with the singing, and the relieved parents are shown watching from outside the quarantine with tears of happiness in their eyes.

During an appearance on First We Feast’s Hot Ones, Lupita confirmed to host Sean Evans that the report was correct.

She then shared the deep personal connection that she has with “Shake It Off,” explaining: “When I was working in London on Stars Wars, I was going through a lot of self-doubt because it was the second thing I had done. I was getting a little depressed.”

“My best friend came to London, and Taylor had just released ‘Shake It Off,’” Lupita continued. “He played it for me to, like, get me into better spirits, and we just jumped on my bed, and we just danced and danced, and it lifted my spirits.”

“When I read the script for Little Monsters, that song and what it meant to Miss Caroline and to the kindergartners, it meant a lot to me that I was going to get to play it on the ukulele and everything,” she said.

“When they came and told me: ‘Aw, no, we can’t get the rights,’ I decided: OK, I’m going to go. I’m going to go and make a pitch; I’m going to let Taylor know what this song means to me,” Lupita recalled.

“I haven’t actually seen her since to thank her for it,” Lupita suddenly realized. “Thank you so much, Taylor. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Last August, Lupita also filmed herself making friendship bracelets before attending Taylor’s sold-out Eras show at SoFi Stadium in California.

The actor is currently promoting her new movie A Quiet Place: Day One, which is a prequel to the 2018 horror film A Quiet Place.