Lupita Nyong'o landed a role in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" – arguably the biggest movie of the year – even though she had no idea what she was auditioning for. The audition occured the same week she won her Oscar for "12 Years a Slave" in 2014.
"I didn't really know what was auditioning for. I knew I was going in for J.J., but I was so busy," the 32-year-old actress said on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Tuesday. "I guess I thought I should find work. I was so busy, I was working with adrenaline so I went in and out. I barely remember that audition, and then two months later [Abrams] called me."
While vacationing in Morocco a few months after the audition, she found out she had not only gotten the part, but that it was for "Star Wars." In the film, Nyong'o plays the role of a CGI-enhanced character Maz Kanata, who is a pirate.
The motion-capture role requires her to wear about 125 tiny plastic-like dots on her face so they could correctly record her expressions. Nyong'o explained that it took about 45 minutes to two and a half hours to put the sticker-like-dots on her face, which also covered her teeth and lips, causing her to sometimes swallow them when she had to eat and drink.
Even though Nyong'o's creature is one of the few in her court who is not a real-life, practical effect, Abrams said it was more than just the tool of the CGI effects that made her performance so good.
"[It] was all Lupita," Abrams told Entertainment Weekly. "She was there on set, and we did capture sessions afterwards as well, and I can't say enough about working with her."
Watch the clip below and catch Nyong'o in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" when it hits theaters nationwide on Friday Dec. 18.
