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Ryan Coogler’s first Black Panther picked up 7 Oscars noms and took over $1 billion at the box office but the fim’s production, lead actor Lupita Nyong’o explained this afternoon during a London Film Screen talk, wasn’t smooth sailing.
“There was a lot of fear from the executives,” Nyong’o told the crowd in London. “Marvel was shaking in their boots and we were too because we knew we only had once chance and we had to do it right.”
Nyong’o added that she and her Black Panther co-stars knew there was “something different” about the project so they all assumed a great deal of ownership over their performances and the wider production.
“We knew we had a lot to prove,” she said adding that she was proud of the film’s legacy and the effect it had on audience.
“People really saw themselves in the film and it totally shattered the myth that Black films don’t sell,” Nyong’o added. “We told a good story and the world responded.”
Elsewhere during the session Nyong’o discussed her performance in Steve McQueen’s seminal feature 12 Years A Slave. The film was Nyong’o first onscreen performance and it won her the Best Actress Oscar. The onstage moderator in London noted that Nyong’o is currently one of only 10 Black performance in Academy history to win an Oscar. But Nyong’o told the audience that the Oscars was never really a goal of hers.
“Before I went to drama school I’d honestly never watched the Oscars,” she joked. “So I didn’t grow up with that as a destination.”
Nyong’o described her first awards experience as “surreal”, particularly surrounding the historical significance of the success 12 Years A Slave had that night in the Dolby Theatre.
“Learning about that history of Hattie McDaniel and how she had to sneak through the back. It’s hard to wrap my head around what that meant,” she said. “And at the time I had to ignore the racial significance because I had to live my life step by step. This was a new reality I had to get used to.”
Nyong’o later added that she looks back fondly on the experience and the position she now holds in Academy history.
“They’re [the Oscars] are not the ultimate marker but they are an important one,” she said. “So to be part of that history as a Black woman and immigrant is deeply meaningful.”
Nyong’o is in London to promote her latest feature The Wild Robot. She stars in the animated feature alongside Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Stephanie Hsu, and Bill Nighy. Over the weekend, we confirmed that a sequel to the animated flick is in the works at DreamWorks Animation.
“100% yes there are absolutely plans for a second one,” the film’s director Chris Sanders told us at Deadline Contenders.
The London Film Festival ends on Sunday.
