Lupita Nyong’o has revealed she had to dig deep “to go to some dark places” in order to channel the terrifying doppelganger character she plays in new movie Us.
The film, which is the sequel to Jordan Peele’s nightmarish Get Out, follows a family who is terrorised by a group of horrifying doppelgängers while enjoying a vacation at the beach.
Speaking during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday (13Mar19), the 36-year-old, who plays the roles of Adelaide Wilson and doppelgänger Red, admitted that she found the roles difficult.
“They’re very different, they’re diametrically opposed to each other but they’re also connected,” she suggested. “I had to go to some dark places within myself to find the doppelgänger, Red.”
Despite confessing that she was convinced that she would “give up and buckle,” the 12 Years a Slave actress confessed that it was the support from those around her that got her through.
“I was playing not one, but two characters in the same movie and I was panicked, because usually I have the time it takes to prepare for one film and (even then), the critic in my head is powerful, and she knows how to freak me out,” she told Nischelle Turner from Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday. “It took having people I love around me who could remind me of the things I wasn’t able to see for myself, and to build that confidence.”
Nyong’o highlighted Black Panther co-star Winston Duke, who appears as her husband in the new movie, as playing a fundamental role in supporting her through the process.
“I could trust him and go to dangerous places and I knew he was there to really support my process and I could support his,” she added.
