'I don't think I'll ever be done shedding my tears' — Lupita Nyong'o on becoming a scream queen and coping with grief following Chadwick Boseman's death
Lupita Nyong'o discussed being a certified scream queen through multiple horror movie appearances and coping with her ongoing sadness following Chadwick Boseman's death during a BFI London Film Festival session on Monday.
Lupita Nyong'o at the BFI London Film Festival.
Nyong'o voices robot Rozem in The Wild Robot.
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Nyong'o, best known for her appearances in 12 Years a Slave, A Quiet Place: Day One, and Black Panther with Boseman, appeared at a Screen Talk event on Monday to promote her new film, The Wild Robot.
When given a preview of her character with Boseman's T'Challa in the 2018 Marvel picture Black Panther, Nyong'o went silent and grew tearful. After a few seconds, the Kenyan actress said that she had not seen the film since Boseman died from colon cancer at the age of 43 in 2020. "The grief is the love, and no place to put it," she went on: She respectfully rejected to proceed to the following clip: "No, no..." That's OK. I don't want to run away from the tears and anguish. You simply live with it. That event will never be separated from the love that was formed."
She went on, "I watch this clip and I'm flooded with pain, and I don't know if I'll ever stop crying since I lost my friend. But I'm like, we'll get to see him alive. And that's amazing."
She praised the response to the 2018 picture, saying that the affection and reception beyond the cast and crew's expectations. "Executives expressed worry. Marvel was shivering a little bit in their boots!" she laughed, adding, "We were too since we knew we only had one chance to accomplish this. And we have to do it correctly. However, it "totally shattered the myth that Black doesn't sell."
Earlier at the festival, Black Panther co-star Daniel Kaluuya discussed Boseman's legacy and on-set leadership.
The talk then moved on to Nyong'o's roles in horror flicks Little Monsters, Jordan Peele's Us, and the most recent A Quiet Place sequel, which stars Joseph Quinn. "I really much prefer doing the scaring then being the scared," she told me. "I don't necessarily seek out horror. Horror films provide ample opportunities for creative expression. It enables you to express feelings you might normally suppress, such as wrath, fear, and worry. That, I believe, is what makes them appealing to people as well as what makes them terrific for actors."
She also addressed her "fear of failure" and being typecast following her 2014 Oscar win for 12 Years a Slave, her first work after graduating from Yale Drama School. "This represents the apex of people's careers. 'Where am I supposed to go from here?' I thought."
"Before attending acting school, I had never seen the Oscars... It was abstract. The year prior, I was in my jammies watching the Academy Awards. It was quite strange." When asked what it meant to be one of just ten Black performers to win an acting Oscar, she replied, "I had to ignore the racial significance of what it means to an entire community of people, because I had to live my life step by step."
"I was trained to expect to struggle as an actor, so when my first job came with all these exponential opportunities, I could feel myself tensing up."
Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation
The actress praised British veteran performer Emma Thompson with persuading her to return to theater after actress Wars: The Force Awakens. "I became close to Emma Thompson while working on Star Wars in London. She asked me over for supper, and I confided in her. I said, 'I want to do theater, but everyone tells me to seize the moment, and now is the time to get a lead role in a big blockbuster movie, and that's what you need to do to secure your place in the industry. But I don't know film as well as I do theater, and I feel compelled to reconnect with my art.'"
"And she was the one who inspired me and told me to accomplish exactly what my spirit desired. She said, 'You should trust your instincts. This industry will be available when you are ready to take the next step. She shared her experience of taking time off to start a family, against advice from others. And she's doing fine. So she really, truly boosted my spirit and confidence in going back to theater."
The BFI London Film Festival runs from October 9 to 20.
