"Many actors coolly shrug off Academy Awards buzz when asked about it on the film festival circuit,” the Canadian Press notes. Lupita Nyong’o ’12MFA, however, seems to dwell more in the realm of normal human beings: when an interviewer asks about the Oscar talk surrounding Nyong’o and the new film 12 Years a Slave, she exclaims, “It’s so exciting” and then bursts into tears.
Just one year out of the Yale School of Drama, the Kenyan actor is winning raves in her supporting role in 12 Years a Slave, which itself stunned critics at this week’s Toronto Film Festival. Based on the true story of Solomon Northup, a free black man kidnapped into slavery in 1841, the movie stars Chiwetel Ejiofor. A slew of other big names includes Alfre Woodard, Brad Pitt, and Paul Giamatti ’89, ’94MFA.
As Patsey, a young plantation slave, Nyong’o “displays immense strength in the face of unconscionable suffering,” Entertainment Weekly says. London’s Daily Mail calls her “the female star of the hottest movie of the year.” The Telegraph says: “The scorching, intrepid Nyong'o is one of the film's miracles.”
The movie opens in theaters on October 18.
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