Lupita Nyong’o spent years battling with the way she speaks.
The 41-year-old — whose breakout role was playing the abused slave Patsey in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave film — was born in Mexico and raised mainly in Nairobi, Kenya. She has lived in the U.S. for the last 20 years.
“In order to create this podcast, I had to get very comfortable with my voice. I made this pact with myself that I would learn how to sound American in a way that would guarantee me a career in acting, because obviously I didn’t know very many people in movies and television with Kenyan accents. There was just no market for that,” Nyong’o said on the first episode of her new podcast, “Mind Your Own.”
“I’ve decided that from tomorrow I am going to return to my original accent. I want to send a message that being an African is enough,” she told her publicists before starting the press tour for 2013’s 12 Years a Slave.
“They had never heard me speak in a Kenyan accent,” she added.
The actress also said her mother backed her decision. “She said, ‘Your accent is representative of your life experience.’ That gave me solace, that an accent comes to being from your life … and just like skin and hair, it can change and it’s OK.
“I guess this accent is called Lupita! I don’t know who could claim it but me,” she exclaimed about her voice.
Nyong’o recently said she wants to diversify her roles by doing comedy.
“I don’t get comedic roles offered to me. Ever. I’m known for dramatic roles, so I tend to get that kind of role. Lots of depth, darkness. I love depth. I’m not saying I don’t want depth. But darkness and drama, I get that a lot. I am always trying to choose roles that I haven’t played before, roles that will stretch me. I think comedy is very scary. It’s very hard to achieve, and I want to try my hand at it more,” she said to People.
