Lupita Nyong’o Says She Was Only Offered “Slave Roles” After Winning Oscar for ‘12 Years A Slave”

Lupita Nyong’o is a great actress, one of the most talented out there, but even she had to go through a serious bout of industry typecasting at the start of her career, and probably the worst kind.

Nyong’o revealed in an interview with CNN that after she won an Oscar for her performance in “12 Years a Slave,” she was only offered more slave roles in the months that followed.

“My winning an Academy Award came at the very start of my career,” Nyong’o said. “It was for the first film I had ever done. So, it really did set the paces for everything I’ve done since. What’s very interesting is that after I won the Academy Award, you’d think like, ‘Oh, I’m going to get the lead roles here and there.’ But it’s ‘Oh, Lupita. We’d like you to do another movie where you’re a slave but this time you’re on a slave ship.’ Those are the kinds of offers [I was getting] in the months after winning my Academy Award.”

Can you just imagine the pitches she got from Hollywood dolts? “It’s like Die Hard… on a slave ship!” “Slaves on a train!” “Slaves in space!”

“It was a very tender time,” she continued. “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. I am an actual person. I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African. 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 then let me do that.”

Of course a filmmaker doing yet another slavery drama is going to cast the actress who won an Oscar for playing a slave. This is Hollywood 101. How is this concept confusing to her? The industry is a glorified vending machine for typecasting.

No need to worry about Nyong’o — she’s a great actress — and followed her “12 Years a Slave” Oscar win by starring in such films as “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Black Panther,” “The Jungle Book,” “Queen of Katwe,” “Us,” and “A Quiet Place: Day One.” None of which had her playing a slave. Oh, and she’s in Nolan’s “The Odyssey.”