In finding my purpose, I found 'Queen of Katwe': Lupita Nyong'o

As the Mexican-Kenyan actress returns to East Africa for her latest film, 'Queen of Katwe', she says the tale of hope and hardship has universal appeal

For three years, we were used to seeing Lupita Nyong'o's smile; chalk white, heart-shaped in her young face as she posed on red carpets.

This smile is glaringly absent from her latest film, Queen of Katwe. In its place, a mouth turned down in the weariest frown that ever appeared on screen.

The dour look has Nyong'o and Mira Nair, her director, mentor and unofficial aunt, in giggles.

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Visiting Johannesburg the day after the Disney film's Kampala premiere, Nair says: "That frown! We had to rein it in. I loved it, the complete lack of vanity in Lupita - I do hate vanity. But at times I would have to say, 'It is going down a little too low now, pick it up, babe.'"

It has been mentioned in a few of the early reviews of the film, which is based on the true story of teen chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi from the Kampala district of Katwe. (Read a review of 'Queen of Katwe'.)

The 33-year-old Oscar winner says: "At the premiere in Uganda, I decided to count how many times I smile in the film. It is six! I smile six times, let it be known."

Nyong'o plays Mutesi's mother, Nakku Harriet. "She is a woman who has had a hard, hard life of strife. I spent time with her before filming and I asked her about her youth. She said she actually does not remember a time in her life when she was happy."

Harriet, a widow, and Mutesi now have a home and a more prosperous life since chess came into their lives. And actress Madina Nalwanga, who plays Phiona in the film, has also been lifted from the Katwe slums, after Nair's casting agent spotted her at a community dance centre.

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Queen of Katwe marks Nyong'o's first major film appearance since she won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2014 for her role in 12 Years a Slave. She has voiced a wolf mother in The Jungle Book and the ancient Maz Kanata character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This year, she won a Tony award for her theatre performance in Eclipse.

"It was such a joy to be back on a film on location. The studio work I have done was educating in itself, but to be on location in Katwe was walking research at all times," she says.

"I was surrounded by it. It is challenging obviously, walking around with a load on your head, the boda boda [motorbike taxis] flying past. But that is the life Harriet lived. I was constantly stimulated and in the moment, in the character of the place she comes from."

It was not entirely new to be in East Africa, where she grew up and where her parents still live. Nyong'o was born in Mexico and educated in the US but she spent her formative years in a Kenyan suburb. Her father is a politician and her mother heads the African Cancer Foundation.

"Even though we were more privileged than others, my parents were keen on us experiencing all levels of life. They believed that where we are is not always where we will be. So they exposed us to mansions and slums, and expected us to find comfort and humanity in both places."

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Nyong'o is an ambassador for Lancôme, Mui Mui and Tiffany & Co, but her early experience of fashion was different. "In East Africa there is a booming second-hand clothing industry. The sellers are all located in slums, and that's where I did my shopping. So this was not foreign or exotic. I had access to this all my life.

"For me, that exposure means that poverty is not one's definition. It is something you are working through and dealing with on a daily basis, but it does not define who you are.

"There is character and personality of people beyond the sheen of poverty, like Phiona and her strong mother," she says.

Nyong'o speaks in considered, almost cut-out motivational quotes. Loaded messages that she wants to share.

"It is important to embrace difference. In doing so, we get closer to our similarities," she says of audience reactions to the film.

Queen of Katwe has had some rave reviews. Critics and audiences have loved the grim authenticity interspersed with an uplifting storyline.

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"We opened at the Toronto International Film Festival," Nyong'o recalls. "There were 2,600 people from all over the world. It was so overwhelming and exhilarating to hear people laughing out loud, gasping, jeering at times. There is a connection that is undeniable."

She pauses and recites. "It is in the specificity that you capture the universal."

You may not have visited a slum, Nyong'o says, but you can identify with having a fight with your mother, or with a young person who has a dream.

"It doesn't matter where it is taking place. I grew up watching Mexican, Brazilian, South African and English films. I had never seen a winter coat, but through film, I could identify with being cold," she says.

What struck Nyong'o about Harriet - a single mother of four who faced starvation but rejected sugar daddies or any unsolicited help - was her sense of dignity.

"No matter how little money she has in her pocket, she is a dignified woman. That was what I wanted to honour. She was guarded, grounded and so witty, so suspicious of dreams. It is heart-warming to see her joy now. Phiona and her chess have changed the course of their lives."

But there is a bigger picture behind this story. Nyong'o has a revolution in mind, in film and society.

"Having a female at the centre of this story, that is power. In Mira's hands, Phiona Mutesi is the protagonist."

Phiona's chess teacher, Robert Katende (David Oyelowo) is the secondary character who changes her life.

"In someone else's hands it could have been the other way around," says Nyong'o. "We as women are asked, all too often in the world of film, to see the world from a male perspective. But here we have Phiona at the centre of the narrative. Men, too, can identify with her, and that is very important in conditioning our minds towards equality. Towards inclusivity as well.

"Just because we have a female at the centre does not mean we are expelling men from the story. When boys watch this film, they can relate to Phiona just as much as they can to a male.

"That is what is important to encourage, though she is a female star, it is not speaking to females only. Part of feminism is being inclusive and conditioning men to support the idea that females are equal contributors to society."

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Fitting then, that her next project is the prodigious task of bringing Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book Americanah to life, as lead actress and producer.

"Making a film takes a lot of patience. It is in its beginning phases, the writing. I will work with David Oyelowo again. We want to be true to the book, to distil it onto the page with its complex characters and vast time span; keep the essence of it."

It is a big ask, because Adichie is a formidable force herself and expectations will be high. But Nyong'o seems up for a challenge.

"There's a line in Queen of Katwe, when Phiona is learning chess: 'The small one can be the big one.' Where you are from is not always where you belong. Doing something you are passionate about can lead you to what your purpose is on this earth.

"Phiona did not know that her love of chess would give Mira and I a job. We are still feeling the reverberations of what she has done. So, I feel it is in finding my purpose that I found this film."

And her purpose is?

"I don't think I can articulate my purpose, but me being an actor is something I need to understand, to do the thing that I should be doing. It keeps me engaged, waking up with a smile on my face, it feels deliberate. And it feels purposeful."