Lupita Nyong'o says Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' helped her through a "hard time professionally".
Lupita Nyong'o
The 'Black Panther' star was stuck in a "funk" over something in her work life, but as soon as her friend played her the song, they started dancing and it acted as a release for the 35-year-old actress.
Speaking after a screening of her new movie 'Little Monsters' at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday (29.01.19), she recalled: "I was going through a hard time professionally, and I was just in a funk.
"I was working abroad, and my best friend came to cheer me up. He played 'Shake It Off' on his phone, and we just had a dance party in my bedroom."
Lupita's school teacher character Miss Caroline sing alongs to the 2014 hit on the ukulele in the forthcoming zombie apocalypse movie, and the 'Us' star even managed to get Taylor, 29, to personally clear the track after the team behind comedy-horror were struggling to get the rights.
She added: "It meant a lot to me that this film had that [song].
"And so when I heard that they were having a hard time [getting the rights] I wrote Taylor Swift myself and asked her, and told her that story. And she said yes!"
Lupita is joined by Josh Gad, Charlie Whitley and Alexander England in the film.
The latter portrays washed-up musician Dave, who joins his nephew's school trip after taking a shine to his teacher (Lupita), but he has to compete for her affections with famous TV personality Teddy McGiggle (Josh).
However, that is the least of their worries when a zombie outbreak threatens to put everyone's lives in danger.
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