Name: Lupita Nyong'o Had A Big Oprah Moment | Letterman
Uploaded: 2024-07-01T22:00:31.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Lupita Nyong'o Had A Big Oprah Moment | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-07-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Lupita Nyong'o Had A Big Oprah Moment | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-07-01. Transcript available.

Our next guest is an Academy Award-nominated actress for her work in the
powerful film
12 Years a Slave. Please welcome Lupita Nyong'o.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for having me.
You look absolutely lovely.
Now, let me just tell you something.
I've been puzzling over this all day, and I hope I came close to getting your
last name pronounced properly.
Yes, you did.
Will you say it for me?
Nyong'o.
Yeah, I didn't get it that close.
But it's interesting, it's a combination of things that mean things.
Lupita, Lupito means what?
Well, Lupita is the diminutive of the name Guadalupe,
and my parents gave me a Mexican name because I was born in Mexico,
and in our culture, it's customary to name a child after the events of the day.
But they chose Lupita specifically because my father's name is Peter,
and in our language, Luo, to Luo means to follow.
And so he thought it was a cute play on words.
Lupita followed.
To follow your father.
Yes.
Well, that's a lovely sentiment.
And the last name, Nyong'o.
Nyong'o.
Nyong'o.
Is Kenyan.
I'm right about that?
Yes.
A fascinating childhood.
You say you lived in, born in Mexico.
Born in Mexico, yes.
And then you went back to Kenya.
Yes, but we stopped by New York.
I actually started walking on my birthday in Queens.
Oh, that's nice.
Yeah.
Good for you.
And explain to folks what your family was doing in Mexico in the first place.
Well, my father was in political exile, and he was teaching political science
at the Colegio
de Mexico.
Yeah.
So I was born in his last year there.
And then he worked for the UN, and that's what brought me to walk in New York.
And then we went back home.
That's fascinating.
So you go back and you live in Kenya, in Nairobi, is that correct?
In Nairobi, yes.
And how long did you live there?
You went through school?
Yeah, I went through school, and then my parents sent me back to Mexico at the
age of 16 to learn
Spanish.
Really?
Yeah.
You traveled back by yourself?
Yeah, with my older sister, yeah.
We went there, and I spent seven months.
Did you have family and friends in Mexico that you knew?
No, we didn't have any family.
My dad had made friends, and so he put me in touch with, he put us in touch
with his
friends, but really, who I was out on my own.
Sure.
I remember it was the first time I had to pay my own bills.
It was very traumatic.
Well, it's a very courageous, yeah, it's a very courageous thing for your
father to do,
but probably in hindsight, a wonderful experience for you and your sister.
Yeah, I just remember at the airport, I had to sign my passport, and I didn't
have a
signature.
I was only 16, and he was like, you are a grown woman, you need to find a
signature.
Yeah.
And so I spent my first day in Mexico trying to find a signature.
Learning a way to write your name?
Yeah, yeah.
Wow.
Now, is that, was Mexico where you, I mean, what did you know about acting when
you were
growing up in Kenya?
Because that seems like those are the formative years.
Yeah.
I mean, I grew up, I watched a lot of American programming, and my favorite
show was Charlie
Brown.
I used to watch that over and over and over again.
Yeah.
And Linus Van Pelt was my favorite character, because he sucked his thumb, and
so did I.
Yeah.
But I just had a really wild imagination.
I spent most of my time daydreaming.
My mother would call me a space cadet, and I'd make up stories.
At the age of three, she tells a story about her friend coming over for tea and
me just
like telling her this wild story about what school I went to and what I'd had
for lunch
and who was my friend.
And I had never been a day at school at the time.
Wow.
So even at a very, very early age, you had this whole scenario for yourself,
which in
fact was a lie.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And my mom.
Well, you need that for acting.
I mean, that's really what we're doing in acting, isn't it?
Yes.
I didn't feel like I was lying.
I was just living in a different reality that nobody else knew about.
Yeah.
And speaking of a different reality, nominated for an Academy Award, we have
pictures of you,
I think, with famous actresses and perhaps other nominees in this year's
category.
There you are.
Who are we talking to?
Oh, that's Cate Blanchett?
No, that's Emma Thompson.
Oh, see, I always get them confused.
Where was this?
What was this function?
This was at the BAFTAs.
The British Academy?
Yes, the British Academy.
And that, I'm going to say, that is Angelina Jolie?
Yes.
Oh, I got to say, I went for two.
Yeah.
And who is the woman with you?
Oh, that's my mom.
That's your mother.
Oh, that's...
So she got to go to the awards thing as well.
Oh, yes, yes.
And she was particularly happy about meeting Oprah.
For the first time, I saw her starstruck.
She's not usually starstruck.
But with Oprah, she was like, oh, my God, Oprah, you grew me up.
There is something about Oprah that is like that.
I mean, in Kenya, did you know of Oprah when you lived there?
Of course, yes.
I learned so much from Oprah.
Yeah, I definitely learned a lot from Oprah.
And it was the one show that my mother would let us watch.
We could only watch a certain amount of TV during the school day.
Right.
And so, a school night.
And so, Oprah was one of them.
Like, we all watched.
And was I one of them also?
Oh, not really.
Sorry.
You met, you know, Jennifer Lawrence.
She's in the same category you are.
Is that correct?
Yes, yes, yes.
Where did you meet her?
I met her at the SAG Awards.
And I turned around, and she saw me at the same time I saw her.
And she made this really ridiculous face of shock.
And she beat me to it.
Because had she not reacted like that, that would have been the look on my face.
She's fascinating in an unusual way.
Yeah.
What do you mean?
Well, she's a wonderful actress.
She's a consummate artist.
Yeah.
But she's kooky.
That's what makes her so good.
It's just a little sideways.
I just love the face that she makes.
Yeah, she's great.
Now, when are the Academy Awards?
Soon, huh?
Yes, very soon.
March 2nd.
You should go.
Are you going?
I think so, you know.
I think you'll enjoy yourself.
This movie, 12 Years a Slave, I think people know what it's about by now.
People have seen it.
And it's difficult to excerpt a little clip from it.
But we've done that.
Do you know what the clip we're going to see?
Yes.
This is a clip where Patsy, my character, and Solomon Northup, who spends most
of his 12 years on the plantation with Patsy.
This is a moment where we see a little bit of the bond they formed.
I would think that this would be emotionally a difficult movie to participate
in because you give your life over to it for, I don't know, three, four, five,
six months.
Was it emotionally hard?
I would think that you, because it's not an easy topic, is it?
No, it's not, but then you just remember that people actually went through this.
So going through it in an imaginative way is much easier, you know, with that
in mind.
Then it becomes practical.
It becomes like a responsibility and doable because people actually lived
through it.
And I think it's invaluable to have a document like this so people can actually
realize visually what this experience was.
Yes, and emotionally as well.
Okay, let's take a look at the clip of 12 Years a Slave right here.
About that.
Oh, boy.
12 Years a Slave.
Lupita Nyong'o.
Well, good luck to you in California at the Academy Awards, and you smell
delightful.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
God bless you.
Thank you so much for being here.
Lupita Nyong'o.
We'll be right back with Little Dragon, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll be right back with Little Dragon.