Lupita Nyong'o may have instantaneously become a Hollywood "it" girl" after winning an Oscar for her first-ever film role in 12 Years A Slave back in 2014, but it's been anything but the typical Hollywood story since.
Nyong'o, who was raised in Kenya, recently spoke to Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo on CNN's Inside Africa about where her career has gone since that big Oscar night.
In short, it's been an experience all too familiar to Black actors: She's been offered slave role after slave role, but has had to fight to play anything else.
Nyong'o's story is in many ways the kind of thing Hollywood lives for: She came seemingly out of nowhere to basically steal the star-studded show in Steve McQueen's harrowing 2013 drama about slavery, walking off with a statuette on her very first try.
But Nyong'o says it ended up pigeonholing her at a time when her film career had only just gotten started. She told Kidjo:
“My winning an Academy Award came at the very start of my career. It was for the very first film that I had done. So, it really did set the paces for everything I’ve done since."
She went on to say:
“But you know what’s interesting is that, after I won that Academy Award, you’d think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get lead roles here and there.’"
"[Instead, it was], ‘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."
Even more disconcerting was the media coverage of her post-Oscar career, in which commentators wondered if she'd ever find another job on the same level as 12 Years A Slave.
“Now there’s an expectation for you and your career. There were think pieces about: ‘Is this the beginning and end of this dark-skinned, Black, African woman’s 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.”
Nyong'o went on to say that her commitment to not being pigeonholed has sadly meant she has worked less than some of her contemporaries.
But for her it is worth it in order to shift the ways Black and African people are represented in media.
“I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African."
"And if that means that I work one job less a year to ensure that I’m not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected for people from my continent, then let me do that!"
Her comments sparked a ton of discourse about the way Hollywood not only stereotypes and pigeonholes Black performers, but the stark differences between comparable actors of colors and white performers.
@jamaalburkmar @CNN you’re late to the party
Margot Robbie has emerged as a prime example: She broke out the same year as Nyong'o and has since rocketed to the tip-top of the A-list with a string of very diverse and high-profile projects, despite never quite having taken on a role with as much gravity as Nyong'o's 12 Years A Slave role—and having never won an Oscar.
Nyong'o's comments have left many fans online calling for change in Hollywood.
Nyong'o will next be seen in Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the epic myth The Odyssey, playing the Queen of Sparta Helen of Troy, opposite Jon Bernthal as King Menelaus. The film is slated to debut in July 2026.
And through the end of the year, her starring performance as Viola in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at Central Park's Delacorte Theater last summer alongside Sandra Oh, Peter Dinklage and Jesse Tyler Ferguson can be viewed on PBS' Great Performances.
