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Concluding The Housemaid with a Taylor Swift song just felt right to Sydney Sweeney.
Swift’s 2017 hit track “I Did Something Bad” from her Reputation album plays over the end credits of the psychological thriller, which is based on the bestselling Freida McFadden novel.
“It’s so perfect,” Sweeney, 28, tells PEOPLE of the needle drop moment after the film’s twisted climax.
Her costar Amanda Seyfried adds, “We saw it before it was fully confirmed.” Says Sweeney, “And we were like, ‘We can’t lose this!’ We were like, ‘You have to keep this!’ ”
Seyfried, 40, says she and a friend watched the movie together and “when it came on, we screamed like little girls, and that’s the excitement of what Taylor Swift’s songs can bring.”
“And it brings every generation together, which is so fun,” says Sweeney, who adds that she brought her cousin to Swift’s Eras Tour.
Daniel McFadden/Lionsgate; Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
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The Housemaid director Paul Feig says “I Did Something Bad” felt right for the ending because it’s “the ultimate kind of empowerment song.” (The soundtrack also features Kelly Clarkson and Lana Del Rey tunes.)
“We wanted to put it in, but I just kept going like, ‘I don’t think we’ll be able to clear this,’ because Taylor doesn’t really clear many of her songs,” says Feig, 63.
When it got approved “we were just like, ‘Oh my God.’ I still get so happy when that comes up. One reporter said like, ‘You should have a dance party at the end of the credits,’ and I kind of feel like I wanted to get up and dance to her.”
Courtesy of Lionsgate
Seyfried and Sweeney agree it was fun and cathartic to let out their frustrations while smashing things and going off the rails while filming the unpredictable thriller.
“We don’t get movies like this, where we get to destroy things the way we did in this, and what a dream,” says Seyfried. “There’s no consequences to breaking s—, it’s just rare. I did get to go way beyond with [my character] Nina, but we get our own moments of rage and revenge.”
Sweeney adds, “I love seeing movies that have just fully embraced female rage.” Says Seyfried, “Yeah, because we have it too.”
Feig says he knew the two stars are “both fantastic actors” beforehand, “but I wasn’t prepared for the level of chemistry that they had” together.
“And how deep they went into these characters and were doing things that were surprising me with it,” he adds. “When I get to the editing room I was picking up on things I didn’t even see on the set that I’m going, ‘Wow, there’s this extra layer that they’re each doing.’ “
The Housemaid is now in theaters.
