Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyongâo discusses her role in Disneyâs inspirational docudrama Queen of Katwe
Vanity Fair and Mississippi Masala director Mira Nairâs moving and inspiring docudrama Queen of Katwe tells a universal story of characters rising from nothing and achieving greatness despite the rough hand fate has dealt them. The fact-based film (an adaption of the biographical Tim Crothers book) casts newcomer Madina Nalwanga as Phiona Mutesi, a girl from Ugandaâs Katwe slums who, after discovering her gift for playing chess and being nurtured by a caring mentor (David Oyelowo), goes on to become an international chess grandmaster.
Itâs the stuff of fairy tales and indeed, itâs a Walt Disney production, the home for such fanciful fare. But this really happened and under Nairâs urgent eye (Nair has lived in Uganda for decades and you can feel her kinship with the people and the landscape), Queen of Katwe transcends clichĂŠ and becomes something majestic.
Playing Phionaâs long-suffering and indomitable mother Harriet is Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyongâo (12 Years a Slave). Nyongâo herself followed her cinematic muse and built herself up, serving time as a production assistant (she worked with Nair as a teen many years ago), making her own movies and reaping the benefits of her hard work. So thereâs a natural kinship with Harriet, a mother who, despite the challenges of living and toiling in poverty and raising many children alone, refuses to buckle and stands tall, making the best of her situation for all involved.
We had the honor of sitting down with the elegant Nyongâo to discuss the making of Queen of Katwe and the challenges of portraying this unique, fiery woman.
ComingSoon.net: Itâs always nice to see location used as a character in a movie and in Queen of Katwe, you really feel like youâre here in the slums of Uganda. And I know Mira lives in Uganda and so that passion for the country and the people is there, itâs palpable. Did you spend some time in pre-production in the location and get to know the people?
Lupita Nyongâo: I did. I got to Uganda about three weeks, I feel, before we started filming, and I got right into that. I of course met with Harriet, the woman I play, and got a sense of who she was. But I used to spend time in the marketplace. Iâd just go and stand and observe the women and the men, the movement. Everything is specific and different, from where I grew up and where I live now.
There is a different sense of time and space. And people are in so much close proximity to each other. Thereâs so much activity going on at all times. Thereâs very many things, very many obstacles to deal with. And life is happening and itâs happening on all levels at all times. And so, that was very important for me, to be able to live there, to visit there and experience that as much as I could, and learn from observation, their movements, their gestures, their auras, and yeah, the daily challenges, even just when we were filming. We were filming and there were open sewers that we had to jump over and rickety bridges that we had to navigate, that sort of thing. And I think it really did help direct me towards a deeper understanding of what life mustâve been like for Harriet.
CS: In Uganda, thereâs a makeshift studio thatâs making waves internationally called Wakaliwood. Itâs like a little version of Hollywood setup in the slums, where they invent their own cameras and are creating an abstract version of what they think an American film is. But did you kind of feel that? Do the Ugandan people by and large have their own kind of insular society that is sort of shut off from the realities of American pop culture?
Nyongâo: I mean, I grew up in Kenya, and all my life Iâve visited slums. I have relatives that live in slums and stuff like that. So for me, the slum life is not an exotic life, you know? Iâm very familiar with it and I took that attitude into this film. I wasnât there studying them as an anthropologist. I was there to take them on and absorb them and normalize them. Thatâs the thing, is that slum life is normal life. You ask Madina. She was just doing an interview and someone asked her, âWhatâs your life like in Katwe?â And sheâs like, âNormal.â And I think thatâs whatâs so beautiful about this film, and how Mira has made it. She tells the story from the inside out. We merge into the Katwe lane, you know? Itâs like this is the normal life, and these are the things theyâre contending with every day. And this is the life they know.
And so, theyâre going about the business of living it, you know? And the struggle is real and amazing like, unimaginable for you and I, who donât live in there. But for the people living there, itâs something to work through. Itâs something to overcome on a daily basis and itâs not something to marvel about. And so, when you talk to me about these films theyâre making and all of that, it makes sense to me. It sounds like people making the most of the life that they are living.
CS:  Well, and you get a sense of that in the film, too. Youâre not gawking at another culture, youâre just latching onto the universal human themes that gel us all together. And really, the movie is just about a mother whoâs concerned about her child and wants her child to make the best decisions for everybody and is afraid to let go of the apron stringsâŚ
Nyongâo: Exactly. And you know, itâs because of how Hariett has learned to understand life. She comes from a lot of struggle and she was dealt very hard cards. She had a very unstable childhood. She was tossed around from mother to grandmother to father to aunt and everything. At one point, she told me she had to walk two days to get to her mother because sheâd broken a door and was scared of the consequences. And so, she walked two days to join her mother. She tried to go to school, but her mother could never afford to keep her in school. And then, she has her first child at 15. And by her late 20âs, sheâs widowed after five children with her husband. Her husband dies of AIDS. And so, she had seen a very hard life, and that was the life she was preparing her children for, as a mother always want to do. And so, she had come to a place where dreaming was dangerous.
CS: Absolutely.
Nyongâo: You know, because nothing but disappointment lay ahead, if you had dreams of being anything other than what you found yourself born into. And her journey in this film is to realize that part of loving someone is being able to let them go, you know, not allowing for fear to govern your choices and your decisions, having faith in something larger than you can understand or grasp. And we see that journey in this film, when she allows Phiona to pursue this unlikely dream of becoming a master. And she does achieve it.
CS: And both Mira and you do this beautifully, almost wordlessly, really. Weâre watching you come to these conclusions and realizations and we can hear your inner voice; itâs magnificently realized.
Nyongâo: Thank you.
CS: Which is something you donât see in a lot of Hollywood movies. There has to be a lot of exposition to kind of lead you there, to hit you over the head with these epiphanous moments, but the character arcs here are really mature and eloquent.
Nyongâo: Well, thatâs Mira. I love how she tells stories because sheâs so interested in human behavior. And because sheâs lived in Uganda for over 20 years, these are places she has known; she has visited people that she has interacted with, that she has relationships with. So she is not romanticizing this at all. And she was very keen to really showcase the humanity and culture of these places. And itâs in the details. Itâs in the jeers and the gestures and the food and the costume and all of that. And itâs all from what she has observed.
CS: But as far as Harriet is concerned, you spent a lot of time with her, and obviously you got to know her. But as a performer, I can imagine it must have been challenging to some degree, to have to portray a living person. It must be a heavy responsibility.
Nyongâo: Yeah, it is.
CS: Are you simply imitating her or are you creating an impression of that person?
Nyongâo: Yeah, it was very daunting. But I had to start with what I knew. And that was in the script, it was in the article that was written for ESPN and it was in the book, âQueen of Katwe.â And then, it was meeting the woman, who then helped me really root her. The Harriet I met was very sturdy and very enigmatic, I would say. I likened her to a baobab tree. You know, theyâre these semi-arid growing trees, with a very, very, very big trunk. And they grow in extreme weather conditions. But they are full. Theyâre full of the water that preserves them. And thatâs Harriet, for me. Sheâs a very full woman. And she is able to survive these really harsh conditions, because of that strength, that sturdiness. And sheâs also very guarded as well. And I wanted to honor these qualities in her. But sheâs practical. You know, and I asked her why she finally let Phiona go play chess. She said, âWell, they could give her porridge and I couldnât.â And she wanted to keep her children alive and as well as possible. And where she couldnât meet their needs, she surrendered to someone else helping and doing that. So this is a woman who is a woman who is fiercely dedicated to her children, no nonsense.
CS: Fiercely independent as well.
Nyongâo: Yes. She has learned from her past and sheâs not interested in repeating mistakes. And this is why she decides, despite the jeers of the community, despite the norm for women to find the support of men to try and make it on her own in order to set her children onto a better path.
CS: Has Harriet seen the movie yet?
Nyongâo: No, she hasnât seen the movie. I asked Phiona, whether sheâd come see the movie when weâre there. And she said, âOh, I donât know.â So weâll see. Weâll see whether she comes.
CS: Sheâs independent and stubborn to the end.
Nyongâo: Oh yes, I mean, yeah. Sheâs got her life to live, you know? But even Phiona, I admire Phiona because she didnât come to set, and you know, why? Because she was in school. Here we are, weâre telling her story, which is her history, and she has her whole future ahead of her and she understands that and she is fiercely committed and I think she gets that from her mother.
