Los Angeles: “Stranger Things” actress and folk singer Maya Hawke shared that Grammy winner Taylor Swift has always inspired her vulnerable approach to songwriting.

Hawke will release Maitreya Corso, the follow-up to 2024's Chaos Angel, on May 1. She reflected on how much influence the Fate of Ophelia star has had on herself and countless others.

“I think she inspired a generation. She made a generation of young people listen to music and think, ‘Oh, wow, my life could matter. My feelings could matter. The details of it could matter.’

And of course it’s a Blakean thing, the minute particulars — the more specific you make something, the more relatable it actually is. But I was hugely influenced by her,” Hawke told Rolling Stone.

She added: “I’ve been listening to her music my entire life. You could start any song from any word and I would be able to know where you were and finish it, probably.”

Hawke also shared the track Lioness from her forthcoming LP Maitreya Corso is about her Stranger Things co-star Sadie Sink, and a day on the set of the hit sci-fi series where she inspired her, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

She said: “I was actually talking about working on Stranger Things. There was a day where I was really grumpy and not feeling inspired. And I came into set as a background player in a scene she was in, and I remembered how magical acting is.”

“I just watched her pick a spirit out of the universe and make the whole room quiet and speak truth and turn something from a game of playing pretend into something extremely authentic. It was a kick in my butt — bring it every time, every second. Don’t get lazy for one second. When I was at drama school, I used to complain — 80 per cent of the day is magic, but 20 per cent is total bull honky.”

“And then I started working, and I was like, ‘Oh, whoa, 80-20 is a high percentage of magic.’ And that was a moment where I was like, ‘You are shrinking the ratio. You are losing touch with the magic. It’s not the art that’s depressed. You are.’ I think she’s the greatest actress of our generation.”

Hawke and Sadie Sink played Robin Buckley and Max Mayfield, respectively, on Stranger Things.