Lupita Nyong’o revealed that her career path after winning an Oscar was often challenging. Despite her acclaimed breakout role, she did not receive the diverse film offers she anticipated.
The 42-year-old actress shared these insights in a recent interview with CNN’s Inside Africa. The interview was published on Saturday, November 22.
Nyong’o won an Academy Award in 2014 for her performance as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave. However, she was often offered roles that continued to typecast her in similar narratives.
"After winning that Academy Award, you might think, ‘I’m going to get leading roles here and there.’ Instead, it was, ‘Oh, Lupita, we’d like you to do another movie where you are a slave, but this time on a slave ship’," she recounted. "That was the kind of offers I was getting in the months after winning my Academy Award."
She described this period as "very delicate." There were public discussions questioning the longevity of her career as a dark-skinned, African woman.
Nyong’o said she had to ignore those commentators. She emphasized that she is a real person, not a theoretical concept for public debate.
Her choice of films also reflects a commitment to changing persistent stereotypes. Following 12 Years a Slave, Nyong’o secured roles in major franchises like Star Wars and Marvel.
"I like to be a joyful warrior for the changing of the paradigms of what it means to be African," she stated. She is willing to work less to avoid perpetuating expected stereotypes of people from her continent.
Nyong’o has also spoken about the personal journey of changing her Kenyan accent. She described a sense of "betrayal" when film executives later requested she sound like herself.
This experience was discussed on an October 2024 episode of the podcast “What Now? With Trevor Noah.” She explained that drama school provided the first permission to transform her accent.
"I went to drama school because I didn’t want to just be an instinctive actor," she shared. "I wanted to understand my instrument."
Nyong’o, born in Mexico City, Mexico, grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, before attending Yale Drama School. She initially struggled with accents, only knowing how to sound like herself.
She put significant effort into adopting an American accent before her role as Patsey. This technical process of controlling her mouth to make new sounds felt like a betrayal outside the classroom.
"I did all that work only to have someone say, ‘Hey, now go and speak like yourself’," she noted. This request felt like another betrayal.
After striving to lose her accent, she was then told she needed to regain it. Nyong’o found it difficult to recover her original accent, feeling she could not find that part of herself in her voice.