Lupita Nyong’o first rose to international fame with her breakout role in the 2013 Hollywood film 12 Years A Slave, earning her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Now, the Oscar-winning actor reveals why she deliberately avoids roles depicting slavery.
Speaking in an interview with Inside Africa, the 42-year-old Kenyan actor reflected on how her first Hollywood role set the trajectory for her career. “It really did set the pace for everything I’ve done since,” she said.
However, after her Oscar win, Nyong’o found herself typecast. Rather than receiving diverse lead role offers, she was repeatedly approached for roles portraying enslaved people. “After I’d won that Academy Award, you’d think, ‘Oh, I’m going to get lead roles here and there,’” she recalled. “But the offers I was getting were, ‘Lupita, we’d like you to play another movie where you’re a slave, but this time on a slave ship.’”
Typecasting Black actors in roles tied to racial trauma is a common concern in Hollywood. Actor Will Smith has also expressed a similar approach, telling GQ in 2021 that he generally avoids slavery films, aiming instead to depict Black people as superheroes. His 2022 film Emancipation is the first and only slavery-focused movie in his long career.
Nyong’o explained that such experiences prompted her to ignore external commentary about the trajectory of her career. “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 said.
She added that she now prioritizes roles that challenge stereotypes about Africans. “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 job less a year to ensure I’m not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected of people from my continent, then let me do that.”
Since 12 Years A Slave, Nyong’o has built a versatile career, appearing in films across genres including Marvel’s Black Panther and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Born in Mexico and raised in Kenya, she holds citizenship in the U.S., Mexico, and Kenya, reflecting her wide-ranging personal and cultural experiences.
