Things To Note From Lupita’s Visit to Nigeria and the Screen Adaptation “Americanah”
Lupita Nyong’o being in Lagos was a remarkable spotlight, however, even more, exciting is the fact that she was here to learn the Igbo culture and language and also meet with the members of the Nigerian creative community.
The Hollywood star is the lead actress and also executive producer (alongside Danai Gurira) for the screen adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‘s best-selling book “Americanah“.
Americannah is a powerful, tender story of race and identity by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun.
The story is centered around Ifemelu and Obinze’s young love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.
Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
On the 22nd of February, Lupita was hosted to a private event by Chimamanda at the Ebony Place with the purpose of introducing Lupita to friends, family and members of the Nigerian creative community.
The 10-episode series will star Lupita Nyong’o, Zackary Momoh, Uzo Aduba, and Corey Hawkins. Uzo Aduba is a Nigerian – American actress. Uzo Aduba is best known for her role as Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, for which she won an Emmy Award.
Danai Gurira will serve as showrunner and writer. Chinonye Chukwu will direct the first two episodes. Chinonye Chukwu is a Nigerian-American film director best known for the drama film Clemency. She is the first black woman to win the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
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Lupita acquiring the rights to the movie.
Lupita explained that ‘Americanah’ has been a dream project for her since she read Chimamanda’s beautiful novel in 2013 and she knew she had to bring it to life on TV screens. Lupita admitted that she cried after reading the book, Once she found out that they had a mutual friend in the acknowledgment page of ‘Americanah’, she contacted him to send an email to Chimamanda, met up with the author at Toronto Film Festival and the rest is the result of the forthcoming screen adaptation.
The movie must be shot in Lagos, Yes!! that’s part of the movie deal.
You might just run into Lupita Nyong’o, Zackary Momoh, Uzo Aduba, Corey Hawkins, Danai Gurira or Chinonye Chukwu on the bustling streets of Lagos, as they work their film magic Naija style.
Lupita has to learn Igbo and Pidgin for the movie
Although it might be a difficult task to learn a new language within a short period of time, Lupita is ready to pull it off. She has an Igbo tutor and she is getting a hang of it. We cant wait to hear her powerful Igbo accent.
Lupita loves Nigeria
Lupita has admitted to being in love with Nigeria, she dressed in the typical owan’be attire to attend a Lagos function. In her words on Instagram, she looked like a Lagos slay queen. Lupita says she loves Nigeria because of the heart-warming, hospitable and honest people.
Lupita says she’ll be visiting Lagos more in the next few months and we are so excited and honestly can’t wait to see more of Lupita in Nigeria and in Lagos.
The actress definitely has a lot of things she will love to learn and know about Nigeria and its people.