Lupita Nyong’o Cried Herself to Sleep After Losing Kenyan Accent

Lupita Nyong’o described the ache she went by means of shedding her Kenyan accent early in her appearing profession.

“The primary permission I gave myself to alter my accent or permit my accent to rework was going to drama college,” Nyong’o, 41, shared on a latest episode of the “What Now? With Trevor Noah” podcast.

“I went to drama college as a result of I didn’t wish to simply be an instinctive actor,” she mentioned. “I wished to know my instrument. I wished to know what I used to be good at, what I used to be not good at, and work on the issues that I wasn’t good at. And one of many issues I wasn’t good at was accents.”

Nyong’o was born in Mexico Metropolis, Mexico, however spent her childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, the place she started her skilled appearing profession on the stage at age 14. She went on to enroll within the grasp’s appearing program on the Yale College of Drama, from which she graduated in 2012.

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“I didn’t know how you can sound another means than myself,” she mentioned of this system. “That was the primary permission that I gave myself. However it was filled with heartbreak and grief, simply grief.”

Shortly after graduating from Yale, Nyong’o landed her breakout position as Patsey in 2013’s 12 Years a Slave, a task that in the end received the actress her first Oscar. Whereas chatting with Noah, 40, she described the method of suppressing her Kenyan accent, noting that taking the ability outdoors of the classroom and on to a film set felt like a “betrayal” for her.

“The method of deciding, OK, I’m going to begin engaged on my American accent and I’m not going to permit myself to sound Kenyan, in order that I’m monitoring and actually attempting to know my mouth in a technical strategy to make these new sounds. Making these new sounds in a context that wasn’t the classroom felt like betrayal,” she defined.

“You recognize, I didn’t really feel like myself and I cried many nights to sleep many, many nights,” she continued. Nyong’o added that there have been occasions she “wished to surrender,” however she had set a “objective” for herself and was decided to “achieve an American market as an actor.”

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“I did all that work only for somebody to inform me, ‘Uh uh, now go and sound like your self,’” she mentioned. “That was one other betrayal. I’ve performed all this in order that I can come out right here and other people may be like, ‘You don’t have an accent.’ After which, now somebody is telling me, ‘Truly, we want you simply as you have been.’ So I needed to do it once more. And after I tried to return to my accent, I couldn’t discover it in my mouth. I couldn’t discover that unique a part of me.”

After her breakout position in 12 Years a Slave, Nyong’o joined franchises similar to Star Wars, Marvel’s Black Panther and A Quiet Place, and is at present voicing the titular character within the animated Wild Robotic, which is at present in theaters and accessible on streaming.