Joseph Quinn became a household name after appearing on Stranger Things, which led to him having to adjust to his new status as a celebrity.
During the Monday, July 1, episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Quinn, 30, was asked by host Josh Horowitz whether there were any embarrassing moments he experienced after becoming famous for his role as Eddie Munson.
“I met Taylor Swift once and I said, ‘You’re Taylor Swift,'” the actor recalled. “And she was very funny and said something nice about the show and I said, ‘Oh, thanks! You are Taylor Swift.'”
Quinn wasn’t sure whether Swift, 34, understood how starstruck he was, adding, “I meant it as a compliment and it is definitely a compliment. But I remember thinking at the time, ‘That was f–king stupid.’ But she was very good-humored about it.”
After being asked where he stands with Swift now, Quinn said they are on “excellent terms” and even joked that he could be featured on her new album.
“We are just trying to figure it out,” he quipped. “She hasn’t reached out at all [about it].”
Quinn’s star has been on the rise since he appeared on season 4 of Stranger Things as outcast Eddie Munson. After the unexpected fan frenzy, Quinn went on to book roles in movies such as A Quiet Place: Day One and the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot.
The one project Quinn has remained tight-lipped about is Stranger Things season 5. (His character was killed off in the season 4 finale, but viewers have asked for the hit Netflix series to find a way to have Quinn make a cameo in the final season.)
“I might have that feeling too,” he told Entertainment Tonight last month after interviewer Rachel Smith said she had a “feeling” Eddie could return. “Or maybe I don’t. Who knows? Maybe I do …”
While promoting the Quiet Place prequel, Quinn wasn’t the only one from the horror movie to name-drop Swift. His costar Lupita Nyong’o also recently opened up about how she personally reached out to Swift for the rights to use her song “Shake It Off” in another movie.
“When I read the script for Little Monsters [and saw] 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,” Nyong’o, 41, recalled on the Thursday, June 27, episode of First We Feast’s “Hot Ones” YouTube series about her 2019 film.
Nyong’o recalled facing obstacles when trying to obtain permission to use Swift’s track.
“When they told me, ‘No, we can’t get the rights,’ I decided, ‘OK. I’m going to go, I’m going to make a pitch,’” she continued. “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. I haven’t actually seen her since to thank her for it.”
According to Nyong’o, the song got her through a difficult time while she was filming Star Wars, adding, “I was going through a lot of self-doubt because it was the second thing I had done. I was getting a little depressed.”
The actress concluded: “My best friend came to London [where I was shooting], and Taylor had just released ‘Shake It Off’ and he played it for me to, like, get me into better spirits. We just jumped on my bed, and we just danced and danced, and it lifted my spirits.”
