Lupita Nyong’o gets offered parts with ‘a lot of darkness and drama’
After landing an Oscar for her breakout role as an abused slave, Lupita Nyong’o has said she gets offered parts with “a lot” of “darkness and drama” – even though she wants to try comedy.
Lupita Nyong’o gets offered parts with “a lot” of “darkness and drama”.
The 41-year-old’s breakout role was playing raped, beaten and abused Patsey in Sir Steve McQueen’s plantation-era ‘12 Years a Slave’, and she says ever since then she’s been flooded with movie offers to play bleak roles – even though she wants to venture into comedy.
Lupita, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for her work in 2013’s ’12 Years’ told People: “I don’t get comedic roles offered to me. Ever. I’m known for dramatic roles, so I tend to get that kind of role. Lots of depth, darkness.
“I love depth. I’m not saying I don’t want depth. But darkness and drama, I get that a lot.
“I am always trying to choose roles that I haven’t played before, roles that will stretch me.
“I think comedy is very scary. It’s very hard to achieve, and I want to try my hand at it more.”
After landing her Oscar, Lupita’s next film role was a part in Liam Neeson’s 2014 action film ‘Non-Stop’, followed by a motion-capture part in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ and a voice performance in 2016’s ‘Jungle Book’.
Lupita added the CGI ‘Star Wars’ role may have been “surprising” to some of her fans and her industry colleagues.
But she said: “I’d been given the privilege of this award (the Oscar) – it comes with having some semblance of choice.
“I was in a place where I was financially stable enough that I could choose. So I decided to exercise that privilege and choose.”
The actress added her family also keep her “grounded” amid her global fame, and says it is one of the reasons she paid tribute to her plus-one on the night she won her Oscar – her younger brother Junior, who is now a DJ and actor.
She said: “We’re in this fantastical environment with all the bells and the whistles and the lights and the glitter and the glamor, and then there’s my brother whose diapers I changed.
“It’s so nice to have that reality. They remind me that this is a real experience and I get to take it home, but I also get to take it off.
“There was never a point when my parents were not on board me being an actor.
“My parents wanted me to be whatever I wanted to be. Their requirement was just that I did it to the best of my ability.
“I got really lucky in the lottery of parents.”
