The 5 best Lupita Nyong’o movies to watch on her birthday
Today’s Lupita Nyong’o’s birthday, so what better way to celebrate than by watching her movies and appreciating her hard work?
IMDb helpfully informed us via tweet that today is Lupita Nyong’o’s 35th birthday, but then asked us to do the unthinkable and pick a “favorite” film of hers with a link to her profile on the site. There’s just one problem. She has starred in a ton of great films already. Granted, it’s really not a problem for us in the sense of having a lot of things to appreciate.
But why not kick the weekend off a little early and celebrate this actress’ birthday by watching some or all of the five movies below? How hard can it be, right?
Black Panther
This movie is still in theaters, so you’ll have to do things like get tickets for a wildly popular film and then leave your house to go see it. However, Lupita’s role as Nakia is just the latest display of her talent as an actress, and she gets to engage in tons of cool action scenes as well as some comedic parts of said cool action scenes.
Also, like everyone else in the movie, she has amazing costumes and repeatable quotes, like “I would make a great queen, because I am stubborn.”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Technically speaking, we could have put both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi on this list, but Lupita has a much bigger role as Maz Kanata in the former. Alas, Maz is a CGI character. However, that doesn’t diminish Lupita’s strong acting, accomplished mainly through her voice and the different tones she strikes as Maz. Try and think of another actress who could sell (semi-jokingly) referring to Chewbacca as her “boyfriend,” then deliver some serious truth-telling to a main character in the new trilogy.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is available on Amazon Video.
12 Years a Slave
Watching the movie that basically put Lupita on the map celebrity-wise (oh, and also won her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, no big deal in your first Hollywood movie) seems like a no-brainer to us. Lupita’s role here is of Patsey, and it’s really one of the major female roles in the film (but nominations being what they are, Supporting Actress it was). It’s probably the most difficult to watch emotionally speaking, but it shows a huge amount of Lupita’s range, and that’s what makes it worth a watch.
12 Years a Slave is available on Amazon.
The Jungle Book
It’s another CGI character, but this time at least most of the cast is transformed into CGI animals. Lupita’s role here is a little smaller than that of Maz Kanata in Star Wars — she plays Raksha, the wolf who is also Mowgli’s mother. Again, she has to work with little in terms of facial or body acting because Raksha is CGI, but she still conveys how far Raksha is willing to go for Mowgli and to protect him at whatever cost.
The Jungle Book is available on Netflix, and you can bet I’ve recommended it before.
Queen of Katwe
Probably her most obscure major Hollywood production — and it’s still a Disney movie, so it’s not that obscure, enough for me to have recommended it a long time ago anyway — Queen of Katwe sees Lupita playing another motherly role, this time of chess champion Phiona Mutesi. It’s quite small, all things considered, but it’s a good, happy movie that makes it great for a celebration.
Queen of Katwe is also on Netflix.
Next: 10 things to watch while waiting for The Gilded Age
What’s up next for Lupita in 2018? IMDb lists her next project as Little Monsters, out later this year, but we wouldn’t be surprised if she shows up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and Star Wars — for years to come.
Happy birthday, Lupita!