Lupita Nyong’o reveals how she stayed calm during the filming of ‘A Quiet Place: Day One’
The Oscar-winning actress talks to theGrio about the challenges of non-verbal acting, her self-care practices on set, and how her cat co-star taught her a new way to love.
In Lupita Nyong’o’s newest film, “A Quiet Place: Day One,” she stars as a terminally ill woman who is faced with unspeakable terror when deadly alien creatures land in New York City and wreak havoc.
The role of Samira required Nyong’o to not only be silent for many takes — the creatures have an astute sense of hearing and hunt based on noise — but also show fear, grief, despair, and many other heavy emotions primarily through non-verbal acting. A performance like that would exhaust any actor and Oscar-winning Nyong’o is no exception.
The 41-year-old actress tells theGrio in an exclusive interview that she often had to replenish herself emotionally after a long day on set. Her routine included many self-care practices, but Nyong’o says “Epsom salt baths” were her go-to relaxation technique during the filming of “Day One.”
“Those were my saving grace,” she says about the baths. “Just a long bath with great music and just, you know, soak in it and wash the day away.”
Nyong’o worked closely with co-star Joseph Quinn on set, who starred as Eric, a stranger that Samira meets during the invasion. The two actors were required to film the majority of their scenes in complete silence while still acting out the enormity of the situation their characters find themselves in.
Nyong’o says that she and Quinn had to be “very present with each other” during filming due to the non-verbal acting the roles demanded.
“You can’t really be off book. You can’t plan what you’re going to do before you show up because it really is not written on the page,” the actress explains. “So you have to be listening to your scene partner in every take. I love that it was so nuanced. We had to be on our toes with each other and very present.”
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Quinn isn’t the only co-star Nyong’o had to work closely with. Nyong’o’s character, Samira, is in hospice and has a service cat to help her with the emotional symptoms of her illness. Prior to filming “Day One,” Nyong’o hated cats. That all changed after she booked the role.
“I learned that I can love cats,” she reveals. “I definitely learned that. I was afraid of cats before I made this movie and now I own a cat [Yoyo]. Or I should say, my cat owns me. And so, I learned a capacity for loving an animal that I just didn’t know before.”
“A Quiet Place: Day One” premieres in theaters nationwide on Friday, June 28.
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