The thing about hanging out with Ugandans is you learn how to party. It was so overwhelmingly cool to finally show this film and have it be received as well as it was at the after-party. What is all this about you leading a conga line at the premiere party in Toronto? “I think of Harriet as a young Mother Courage,” Nair has observed, “and that is the strength and beauty that is in Lupita.”Ĭurrent Vogue cover subject Nyong’o sat down with while in Washington, D.C., last week following the well-received premiere of “Queen of Katwe” at the Toronto International Film Festival. The part of Harriet was specifically written for Nyong’o, whom Nair has known since the actress attended the director’s Maisha Film Lab in Kampala and interned for her production company in New York. Opening this Friday, the true story directed by Mira Nair (“ Monsoon Wedding,” “ The Namesake”) was shot on location in the teeming slums of Kampala and has a cast filled with native performers. 1 box-office hit, “ Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens” as the tangerine-hued, goggle-eyed motion-capture alien Maz Kanata, and in this summer’s mega-blockbuster “ The Jungle Book” as the voice of devoted mother wolf Raksha.īut Nyong’o, 33, is viewed in all her glory onscreen in the uplifting “ Queen of Katwe” as a fiercely protective Ugandan widow trying to make ends meet while raising four children, including a tween daughter who aspires to be a chess master. She was duly nominated for a lead Tony-one of five nods earned by the drama-as a 15-year-old Liberian girl who goes from being a captive “wife” of a militaristic brute to a defiant warrior.Īs for the movies, she was heard but not exactly seen in last year’s No. Last year, Nyong’o used her newfound fame and influence to help bring the female-driven, African-themed play ”Eclipsed” to Broadway. But she is not resting on her fashionista laurels.
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