Quote from Oladosun Joshua Segun on November 25, 2025, 12:03 PM

Lupita Nyong'o refused to back down. Lupita discussed her decision to decline future jobs more than ten years after winning Best Supporting Actress at the 2014 Oscars for her first performance in 12 Years a Slave.

"My winning an Academy Award came at the very start of my career," in an interview with CNN Inside Africa on November 22, she informed Angélique Kidjo. "It was for the very first film that I had done. It really did set the paces for everything I've done since."

"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,'" she went on. Instead, she was told, "'Oh, Lupita, we'd like you to play another movie where you're a slave, but this time you're on a slave ship.'"

In fact, the Kenyan Mexican actress was taken aback by the opportunities that presented themselves after receiving the golden trophy for her performance as Patsey in the Steve McQueen-directed movie.

"It was a very tender time," the Us star mirrored. "There is an expectation for you and your career. There were think pieces about, 'Is this the beginning or the end of this African woman's career?'"

"I had to deafen myself to all those pontificators because at the end of the day, I am not a theory," she kept on. "I am an actual person. I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African."

Lupita was therefore prepared to stick to her principles rather than participate in any initiatives that didn't feel right.

"If that means I work one less job a year to ensure that I am not perpetuating these stereotypes that are expected of people from my continent," she clarified, "then let me do that."

In the following two years, the actress starred in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Jungle Book, and Queen of Katwe in addition to the Liam Neeson-led movie Non-Stop.

However, playing warrior and T'Challa's love interest, Nakia, opposite the late Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther was one of her most frequent roles.

"When we're dealing with African representation in story," in a 2022 joint interview with co-star Danai Gurira, she revealed to Mama Knows It All, "we feel such a strong sense of responsibility and desire, deep desire to see African women on screen that look and feel like we know them to be."

"With these characters, we wanted them to be women that we know," she added. "The women that I know are complex and they're deep and they're about something other than just the man in their lives. I think that was really important to us to show women with agency and strength."

Analyzing the implications of those attributions for their characters was also necessary.

"Strength does not mean an absence of vulnerability," she continued. "It means that you have it in yourself to get yourself through things, to seek help. Strength in itself is a very complex idea. It was important to us that the women come across as being full. That's not hard if you commit to expressing humanity and not."