Lupita Nyong’o.Photo: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty
Lupita Nyong’otook her role inBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreververy seriously.
In a TikTok video shared on Saturday, the 39-year-old Oscar winner documented theintense swimming trainingshe went through in order to portray her character, the Wakandan spy Nakia, in the recently released film.
She then starts to crawl and walk underwater using the same workout equipment in each hand.
Earlier this month, Nyong’o and herWakanda ForevercostarAngela Bassettshared theirexperiences with swimming, expressing toVarietythat they were not particularly skilled in the water before shooting the film.
“You know, Black girls have this history with water and their hair,” Bassett, 64, told the outlet. “Some of us can’t swim all that well, because it’s going to mess up that press and curl. It’s a whole thing.”
“Before we started this film, I knew how to swim, but I wasn’t a confident swimmer,” Nyong’o, added. “I didn’t need to swim in public, that’s for sure. That’s a lifelong skill that I now have.”
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Both actresses trained to the point where they could bothhold their breath underwaterfor about two minutes, perVariety, which noted that cast member Mabel Cadena could hold her breath underwater for around six-and-a-half minutes.
About half ofWakanda Forever’s scenes take place underwater, thanks to the addition of new antagonist Namor (Tenoch Huerta), who rules the secretive deep-sea land of Talokan.
According toVariety, the film’s director,Ryan Coogler, also decided he needed to be on the same page with his cast members, who had to learn to free dive and train with free diving instructors and aquatic stunt teams for the movie.
“A lot of us were raised to have fear of water,” Coogler, 36, told the outlet. “I had to figure out how to swim so I could direct this movie.”
source: people.com
