Lupita Nyong’o revealed that she kept receiving offers to play slaves after her Oscar win.
During an interview on CNN’s Inside Africa, Nyong’o told musician Angélique Kidjo she was asked to portray enslaved Black women. Nyong’o won an Academy Award for performance in 12 Years a Slave.
“After I won that Academy Award, you’d think, ‘I’m gonna get lead roles here and there,’” Nyong’o said. “[They’re like], ‘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 kind of offers I was getting in the months after winning my Academy Award.”
Nyong’o also shared that there were several think pieces “speculating whether her career would stall.” She said the “commentary comes from both racism and colourism.”
“There were think pieces of ‘Is this the beginning and end of this dark-skinned Black African woman’s career?’ I had to deafen myself to all these pontificators because, at the end of the day, I’m not a theory. I’m an actual person,’ she explained.
Nyong’o took a stance by refusing to accept roles where Black women were identified by suffering.
“If that means I work one job less a year to ensure that I’m not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected of people from my continent, then let me do that.”
Nyong’o went on to become a leading actress in several blockbuster films. She appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Nakia in Black Panther and its sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Also, she starred in the Star Wars sequel trilogy as Maz Kanata. Her films collectively earned over $5 billion worldwide.
Nyong’o received a Tony Award nomination for her Broadway debut in the play Eclipsed (2016). Her children’s book, Sulwe (2019), became a #1 New York Times Best-Seller.