Honoree Lupita Nyong’o attends the Hollywood Confidential event recognizing her in support of “A Quiet Place: Day One” at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on June 14, 2024.
Lupita Nyong’o is speaking candidly about the kinds of roles that came her way following her breakthrough performance in 12 Years a Slave.
Nyong’o, 42, reflected on the period immediately after her big-screen debut, a performance that earned her the 2014 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, during a conversation with actress-musician Angélique Kidjo.
The Oscar win “was for the first film I had ever done,” she recalled. “So, it really did set the paces for everything I’ve done since.”
The Kenyan-Mexican actress went on to highlight how many of the offers she received afterward were rooted in typecasting. “What’s interesting is that after I won the Academy Award, you’d think, like, I’m going to get the lead roles here and there. [Instead it was,] ‘Oh, Lupita. We’d like you to play another movie where you’re a slave, but this time you’re on a slave ship.’ Those are the kinds of offers I was getting in the months after winning my Academy Award.”
After her breakout in 12 Years a Slave, the Yale School of Drama alum booked motion-capture and voice roles in Star Wars and The Jungle Book. She later appeared in a supporting role in 2018’s Black Panther and earned her first leading part in the 2019 horror hit Us.
“It was a very tender time,” Nyong’o told Kidjo, 65, describing the years following her initial success. “There is an expectation for you and your career. There were think pieces about, ‘Is this the beginning and end of this dark-skinned, African woman’s career?’ And I had to deafen myself to all those pontificators because at the end of the day I’m not a theory. I’m an actual person.”
She added, “I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African. And if that means I work one less job a year to ensure that I am not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected of people from my continent, then let me do that.”
Lupita Nyong’o accepts the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role award for 12 Years a Slave onstage during the Oscars at