When an actor suffers from a phobia, the professional challenge is served. From the fear of spiders Tobey Maguire (please, let’s savor the irony) until that panic at the heights that has put Emma Stone and Sandra Bullock, Instinctive aversions are the source of many tough moments on set.
rolling A quiet place: Day 1, Lupita Nyong’o has faced one of those situations. In an interview with Glamor (via IndieWire), the Kenyan actress has confessed that she came face to face with one of her biggest fears. Which has nothing to do with aliens with fine hearing, but rather with furry, adorable earthling creatures… and with a lot of character.
What is Lupita Nyong’o afraid of?
In the continuation of the saga created by John Krasinski, Nyong’o plays Sam, a woman who survives on the Earth occupied by aliens with the only company of a cat. And there was the problem, because the actress of Twelve years of slavery suffered from a deadly fear of felines.
“I asked to Michael Sarnoski, the director, if there was any way to change the animal. I suggested an armadillo, but he wasn’t happy about the idea,” jokes Lupita Nyong’o. “I had to learn a lot about myself and the animal before I felt comfortable enough to do it.”
The actress explains that the root of her phobia of cats comes from a general tendency of distrust. Something that, in turn, has its origin in the racism that she suffered in her youth. “They picked on me a lot for having dark skin,” remember. “I went to a co-ed school when I was 12. So, just when I was learning to be myself and becoming aware of my sexuality, boys were picking on me for being black,” she recalls. “I think I developed my character to compensate.”
Luckily, this story has a happy ending. The filming of A quiet place: Day 1 Not only did it help him overcome his fear of cats, but in the end he ended up adopting his own cat. The pet attends Yo-yo, and has helped Nyong’o overcome the effects of a difficult breakup: “When you feel poorly cared for, the best remedy is to take care of someone. I took care of Yoyo, and he entered my heart,” she explains.
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