The entertainment is but a bare skeleton without the raw talent and prowess pumped in by artists contributing to it from the world over. Furthermore, for Hollywood, its power rages in its diversity and the rapidly minimizing gender gap helmed by actresses such as Lupita Nyong’o. A popular face in pop culture, her acting range and versatility have only gone up in recent years, adding to her merits and accolades. However, easing into acting did not come easy for her every time.
One of her latest and upcoming roles in A Quiet Place: Day One gives her quite a platform to showcase her skills. On the flip side, it involved a challenging aspect and almost led her to think about leaving the role. Determined to shoot her shot, she took the role and sought help to overcome one of her long-standing fears that also had a lasting impact on her life as a whole.
Lupita Nyong’o resorted to therapy for A Quiet Place: Day One role
Michael Sarnoski’s upcoming sci-fi horror prequel iteration of the Quiet Place franchise stars the actress as the lead character of Sam. An ordinary citizen caught in the chaos of an alien invasion, the character will serve as a window to humanity’s first encounters the noise-sensitive creatures. Additionally, she also owned a cat, and Lupita Nyong’o had to act alongside one. The only problem here was that the actress was deathly afraid of the felines.
In talks with Glamour magazine, she opened up on the whole saga. Unwilling to back out of the role, the Black Panther actress asked the director if she could switch the cat for another animal, even an armadillo. Left increasingly interested in starring in the production after John Kransiski’s vision “expand what the genre of horror can encompass,” she decided to sign up for cat therapy lessons.
I had to learn a lot about myself, about the animal, before I was comfortable to do it.
Interestingly, not long after the filming kicked off, Nyong’o became accustomed to being around the cat and had now overcome one of her most persistent fears. Furthermore, the impact was such that she resorted to adopting a 2-year-old cat named Yoyo, who she now claims “shows me how to relax”.
Nyong’o did not expect to win an Oscar and her reaction was surprising
In 2014, Lupita Nyong’o won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 12 Years a Slave. Moreover, the win was even more resounding as she won an Academy Award for her debut role, which added wings to her career. Yet, she had no expectation of winning one and could not believe her win even after the presenters called her name. Only after her brother hit her on her back, did she acknowledge and stand up to walk the stage, marking a stellar moment for herself.
The Oscar win also made her the first-ever Kenyan-Mexican actress to gain that honor. Moreover, she also won a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award for the same movie. Thereafter, an NAACP Image Award, a Daytime Emmy Award, and nods for a Tony Award have also come to her through the years.
A Quiet Place: Day One releases on June 28, 2024.
