Lupita Nyong’o admits she was always afraid of cats, until an alien invasion changed her mind.
Nyong’o credits “A Quiet Place: Day One” for helping her overcome her felinophobia.
She plays Samira, accompanied by her cat, Frodo, as aliens invade Earth and take over New York City.
“I’ve been terrified of cats my entire life,” Nyong’o said in an interview last week with “CBS Mornings.”
“I wouldn’t be in a room with a cat, I would cry … I just found them suspicious, you know? They’re like little lions, and like, if they were any bigger, they would eat us.”
Nyong’o said she begged director Michael Sarnoski to consider a different animal for the part.
But instead, she tried exposure therapy, which involves releasing cats in her presence at her home. It worked.
Nyong’o now has an orange tabby cat named Yoyo.
In an Instagram post, she said that it was “time to embrace change and new possibilities.”
“I never understood people whose phones were full of photos and videos of their pets — now I am one of those people! It may look like I saved Yoyo, but really, Yoyo is saving me,” wrote Nyong’o. She fostered her cat before adopting him through the Best Friends Animal Society.
“A Quiet Place: Day One” was a ey toward her changes.
“And I had to look like I owned a cat, and look like I cared, and look like I loved the cat,” said Nyong’o. She said that she “fell in love” with costars Nico and Schnitzel while on set.
“There’s something that melts your heart when they hold onto you. It was a bond that I had with them.”
