Lupita Nyong’o needed cat therapy to star in ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’

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NEW YORK CITY — After landing a starring role in A Quiet Place: Day One, Lupita Nyong’o had to get over one of her biggest fears.

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No, we’re not talking about a deep-seated panic settling in at the thought of a real-life alien invasion. To take on the part of Samira in the prequel to the other two films in the post-apocalyptic horror franchise launched by John Krasinski back in 2018, the Oscar winner had to overcome her unease around, of all things, cats.

“I was terrified of cats. I couldn’t be in a room with a cat. I was suspicious of them. I was pretty sure they were out to get me,” she jokes in an interview with Postmedia. “But I wanted to play Sam so badly, and she has this cat. So I had to face my fear.”

Nyong’o, who won an Academy Award for her first film, 12 Years a Slave, in 2013, worked with a cat therapist to overcome her unease around the animals.

“They hired someone to bring some cats to me in Los Angeles, and over a number of days, I observed the cats and asked lots of questions and when I felt brave enough, I touched one and then it was two, and before you know it I was petting one until I could hold a cat without freaking out,” she grins.

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Hitting theatres today, A Quiet Place: Day One takes place in New York City and tells the story of the first day blood-thirsty aliens — with hypersensitive hearing — invaded planet Earth killing everything they could detect. In the midst of a battle with terminal cancer, Nyong’o’s Samira is visiting the bustling metropolis with other residents when a shower of meteorites comes streaking across the sky. Samira joined the excursion in hopes of grabbing a slice of pizza, so — with her beloved black-and-white cat Frodo in tow — she sets off on a journey through the ravaged city to obtain one last bite from her favourite spot in Harlem, unfazed by the prospect of death.

Partway through her trek, she encounters Eric (played by Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn), an English law student. As he surfaces from a flooded subway, he spots Frodo and the cat leads him back to Samira. The trio form an unlikely partnership as they tiptoe their way across a landscape riddled with aliens that are triggered by sound.

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With his innate curiosity still intact, the carefree Frodo joins the likes of Jonesy from Alien as one of the great onscreen feline characters. After acting opposite Nico and Schnitzel — the two cats who bring Frodo to life — Nyong’o was fully won over.

“They’re so cute. Once you understand cat behaviour, they’re just irresistible. I fell in love with them. After the film, I got myself a cat,” Nyong’o exclaims.

Krasinski starred in and wrote and directed the first two Quiet Place movies. Both entries took place in an unnamed small town and also featured his wife, Emily Blunt. He gets a story credit and serves as a producer on the third film, which is written and directed by Michael Sarnoski (who helmed the Nicolas Cage thriller Pig).

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As the universe expands with this new spinoff (Djimon Hounsou is the lone connective tissue as he reprises his Part II “Man on the Island” character in a brief cameo), the Black Panther star says she wanted to join the franchise because it “dares itself” to push the horror genre.

“John Krasinski spoke to me about wanting to expand what the genre of horror and thriller can encompass. Michael Sarnoski has written a film that is epic and large, but it’s also an intimate and tender story. I love that. I love the fact that Samira is not a typical hero. She’s a departure for me, and she goes on this unexpected journey.”

Quinn, who is set to have a very big year with a starring role in Gladiator 2 this November and a part in Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four flick, says watching the first Quiet Place movie in 2018 left a big impression on him.

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“I remember watching it in the cinema, and it was an experience that I never had before,” Quinn, 30, says. “It was so tense and everyone was so invested in what was happening in this very new universe, and that’s rare. It’s very rare for IP to feel original these days, and that’s what John Krasinski did in setting up this world. But within that world were these characters that you really cared about. You were really invested in them. That’s no easy thing to pull off.”

With only a handful of credits to his name at the time, Quinn says he “put my hat in the ring” when he heard producers were casting for a story that would follow new characters.

“I thought with the combination of John Krasinski and Michael coming together — I watched Michael’s first feature, Pig, and I thought that was extraordinary — I thought that would be an interesting collision of worlds. So it was a no-brainer. I really wanted to be involved,” he says.

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But despite earning acclaim of their own, the two said they were initially nervous when they first met one another. So much of their character’s chemistry depended on their ability to display fear with wordlessness. Would they be able to pull it off, they both wondered.

“He mentioned being nervous to me, and I mentioned being nervous to him,” Nyong’o says. “Then it was like, ‘Here we go.’ It was nice. It was honest.”

“I think that was literally the first thing I might have said to you,” Quinn recalls. “We were in our costumes, the camera was rolling and I said, ‘I’m nervous’ and Lupita said, ‘So am I.’”

Nyong’o looks at her castmate and smiles. “It was two actors trying a new thing for the first time.”

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