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Lupita Nyong'o isn't Afraid to Make Brave Career Choices

Most film stars whose career are on an upward trajectory usually don't take the time to make their debut on Broadway, but that is exactly what Lupita Nyong'o has done. She has debuted on the big stage with a role in Eclipsed, which she calls 'terrifying'. it is only two years since Lupita won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 12 Years a Slave. She also had a role in the mega-hit, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but was keen to stretch her acting muscles a bit, deciding on a 10-week run at Off Broadway Theater, then committing to the Broadway run. Eclipsed is a drama by Danai Gurira of The Walking Dead fame.

Lupita Nyong'o, speaking to Variety, had this so say about why she values the stage so much. "I'm a child of the theater. My father used to recite Shakespeare to me when I was five years old. It's something that's very, very dear to me. And I think theater offers a chance to flex muscles that then only help to sustain cinematic work. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to get back to theater at the point I did. I'd experienced unprecedented sucess with my first film, and I really wanted to get back to the craft of it, just to remind myself, Wait, what is it I do again? The best way to find out is on stage."

When she is asked what attracted her to the theater in this role Lupita replies "It's one of those things where I don't think I can really identify what it was, and I don't care to really find out why. It's the part I felt I was called to play. I don't know. It terrified me, first of all. The character I play, the Girl, terrified me. The whole play terrified me, and that's why I knew I had to do it."

An interesting Lupita Nyong'o fact to note is that, according to Wikipedia, she holds dual citizenship. Her Kenyan parents were working in Mexico when she was born. That made her the first Kenyan and Mexican woman to win an Oscar.

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