Lupita Nyong’o dreams of starring in a romantic comedy.
The 41-year-old actress has made her name with a string of hard-hitting roles in films such as 12 Years a Slave and Us, but is now pleading with Hollywood casting directors to put her in a light-hearted movie.
“Please tell everybody I’m looking for the rom-com. I am here; I’m taking calls. Listen, if I need to audition, I’ll do it. I’m dying to do a comedy – dying to do a comedy,” she told an audience at an event hosted by Paramount Pictures and Hollywood Confidential to celebrate her work.
Lupita won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2014 for her work in director Sir Steve McQueen’s horrific 19th-century-set drama 12 Years a Slave. She has also portrayed a spy and romantic interest to Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther.
She has even started to advertise her comedy abilities online by posting light-hearted videos of herself and her cat on social media to show her playful side.
“I’m trying to tell these executives that I’m funny and that I can be light-hearted and light-footed. But I do have more dramatic roles in the can than light ones, so someone’s just got to take a chance with me. So consider this my open application,” Lupita added.
Despite her dreams of a comedy role, the actress is currently starring in the Quiet Place prequel A Quiet Place: Day One.
She said, “I was very honored to get offered this role because I think it is a very innovative world that John Krasinski created.
“The [US] Office” actor Krasinski, 43, starred in and directed the first Quiet Place movie in 2018, and Lupita called his dark creation about alien monsters who terrorize humanity by eating them every time they hear them move or make a sound “a fun world.”
“It’s a very specific world. It’s a tense world,” she added.
