Lupita Nyong’o opens up about her latest role in the new movie, A Quiet Place: Day One, and reveals how the death of Chadwick Boseman helped her through it.
In the film, Nyong’o plays a Manhattan-based poet named Sam, who has terminal cancer. During her health battle, she is also battling an alien invasion. In a recent interview, the actress talked about the emotional role. “It was scary to have to go there,” she said as she explained the character’s struggle to deal with mortality. “Even before this apocalypse takes place, and whose life is slipping between her fingers.”
“That was daunting to have to go there, psychologically and emotionally,” she added. Although, it was emotional for her, the most emotional time of her life was when her close friend and fellow actor, Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer at the age of 43. Nyong’o said that the experience “shook her to her core.” Boseman kept his cancer battle private.
She went on to explain, “In the end, it was actually very therapeutic. I definitely was thinking about that a lot.” She continued, “What I came to realize is that it’s really important to be reminded of our mortality because then we live life just a little more intentionally. When we think we have all the time in the world, we can really take people for granted and experience for granted.”
Lupita Nyong’o’s film A Quiet Place: Day One is out in theaters now and will be streaming on Paramount+ in the coming months.