I’m still floating from a whirlwind adventure last week. I’ve relived walking the red carpet in Hollywood, and I’ve reviewed Queen Of Katwe urging my readers to see it in theaters this weekend. Last night as I was reading over the transcripts of our exclusive interview with Lupita Nyong’o, Madina Nalwanga, and Martin Kabanza, my eyes welled up with tears for probably the hundredth time in the last eight days. Expression emotion through crying is who I am, I’m sensitive to happy and sad moments in life and this interview touched on a little bit of both.
Walking into the room holding hands, we applaud Lupita, Madina, and Martin. They stand tall and proud and their smiles glow. Read my movie review and you’ll know the back story of Madina and Martin, it helps explain the first question posed to the trio. We started off curious of what it was like for the three of them working together.
Lupita : We like each other. And we had a lot of fun together. I met them before we started shooting. Once Madina was cast, it was a long process and then when she was finally cast, I walked into a rehearsal workshop situation where they had my whole family there and I walked in and she just, she said, hi, Mom. I gave her a big hug and they were both just so receptive to me and Madina actually taught me how to cook. She sold corn in her past and I asked her to show me to go shopping in the market. She did all the shopping. My whole onscreen family, we went and did it together and then we went back to her house and she showed me how to prepare the meal. We all played a role in the preparation of the meal. [To Martin] I feel like he chopped a few things. You washed a few things. He participated. So we broke the ice that was and we had a really great working relationship. They’re really hungry and curious and present as actors and it was so lovely for me to have that present kind of immediate condition to work in.
Martin : …Mama.
Lupita : They still call me mama.
This is where you will find us all sniffling. You even see Lupita choke up and wipe a tear from her eye. Moms of the world will understand the depth of this statement especially considering their real-life circumstances!
Martin : It was my first time acting, but I never knew anything about acting, but she taught us how to get into character we used to copy her everything she do. We tried to do it so she was so good. She was a good mom.
Madina : I really used to copy her and I named myself copycat because every time I could see her getting ready, getting to character and then I do what she was doing in quiet ways and she can’t see me, but she was really good and she really helped me in some of the hard scenes that are really hard because I could not really cry. You’ll never find dancers sad. We are always happy and she was there for me to make sure that I get into character so that I can cry. She really helped me so much.
That’s why I still call her mom because ever since I was young and I ever since I left my mom (because she wanted me to go to school and that’s why I left her) I’ve never had anyone else that I’ve ever called Mom since I was four up to last year. She was the first one to be called mom from my mom and it was so, so nice for me to call her mom. And she really acts it. Do you want this? So it was really nice for me to meet her and she was amazing for me and when I called mom for the first time, she replied to me, and I got touched inside my heart.
Martin: I was raised by my grandparents. My mother left me when I was three months, me too my first time to say mom in my mouth.
These children lived as Phiona did, they’ve experienced adversity and it’s awe-inspiring how they took their experience to heart and reflected this in the movie. Their connection to Lupita is still strong and goes beyond a working relationship.
Our next question asked was were there any scenes that were especially touching? Lupita took the reins with this one.
Lupita : Touching, my goodness, what wasn’t touching? I do remember once we were about to shoot the eviction scene, I was sitting in our tent where we’d wait and these two [Martin, Madina] were very quiet and quite pensive, I asked them how they felt. They both mentioned how this was their life. They both experienced evictions in their past and I just remember being really moved at how this was reflecting a real life in Phiona, but also a real life in both of them. They were having this chance to tell their story, to bring it to a larger audience that would understand the challenges of poverty, but also the triumph of people who live through it. Poverty is not one’s definition, and that they were going to have this chance to put that experience of their past into good and immediate use in the scene were about to shoot. Obviously, I come from a very different background. I come from a background of privilege and so I was very humbled in that moment. Here I am playing the mother and being the shepherdess of these two going through this experience and yet, I was learning so much from them, being able to take their lead as we went to do that scene.
Such a powerful interview so far. For a moment we switched focus and asked Lupita how she felt when she saw the cover of Vogue.
Lupita : …bring words to that moment. I mean, I was just so touched. When Vogue said they wanted to do another cover with me, of course I was like elated and then they said they were interested in doing a trip to Africa. I said the only place to go was home, it’s home and the place that means the most to me is my village, Ragda, where my grandparents are. It’s my ancestral home and I spent my vacations there as a child and it’s where my whole extended family would come together and we’d pass the holidays together and so to see that place, that light, that equatorial light on the cover of Vogue, and to find my grandmother in the pages inside, oh my God, it was everything I hoped it would be.
Kenya is known to be a tourist destination. We have all the wildlife and that attracts thousands, hundreds of thousands every year, but Kisumo, the Western part is not at all, and yet it’s magnificent. I think it’s magnificent with the rock formation of Kitmekai and just the colors. The Lake Victoria. The fishing. And it’s the thing that actually brings Uganda and Kenya together. We share the Lake Victoria and we shot Queen of Katwe on one side of Lake Victoria and you see that in the film and then the Vogue shoot was on the other side of it, and so for me, that was a tie-in and it was a thing that I felt brought the film and me being on the cover together.
Lupita continues on to explain what it was like learning the language of Luganda.
Lupita : I didn’t know anyLuganda. These guys were my teachers, that’s what’s was so great about being in Uganda is that I got to immerse myself in the culture and I had to learn Luganda. I came to Uganda and I was like I’m gonna pick up a few Uganda words and then I was introduced to Baby Ivan who plays Baby Richard and he didn’t speak any English. The first time he was given to me, he went right back to the person who gave him to me because he didn’t trust me and I couldn’t have a conversation with him. I realized that Luganda was my lifesaver. It was going to really be my lifesaver and soI got to work learning Luganda and I would ask all the time how to say things and write them down and I needed to say very basic things to this boy like, do you need to pee? Are you hungry? Stop doing that. Keep quiet. Yeah, so it came in very handy and I loved learning it.
It was hard for me to think in my head what I liked best in the film. Many parts were favorites for different reasons. We asked the cast what their favorite scenes in the movie were.
Lupita : Favorite scenes… Handsome man first.
Martin : My favorite scene was where I run for the chicken, all the time I was eating chicken!
Lupita : I made this mistake in Twelve Years [a Slave] when they give you food, you can’t eat too much of it because there’s going to be so many takes and you’re going to be sick by the time you finish the scene. I wasn’t there for that scene, but we had a scene where we had to eat this stew and the art department made this stew so good. All the kids were scarfing it down and I said you’ve got to slow down because you’re not going to make it and then before you know it, they didn’t want. By the time we’re shooting, they’re were pushing it away. They didn’t want anything to do with it.
Madina : So with me, my favorite part in the movie was seeing David running around doing the cat and dog scene because not in my life I’ve never had someone who has time for me, who has time for all of us. He had time for us, so he could do the cat and dog playing for us. It was fun for me. I liked it, because for all of my life, I’ve never had someone like that. He had time for us, so I respected him, his time and I enjoyed watching what he was doing for us and it was so amazing to see him jumping. Jumping over the bed, collapsing so that was my favorite.
Martin : Another scene that I liked in the movie is the flood scene . I like Mama doing it. She was so real, and me I didn’t have that power of crying, but she made me cry in that scene because she was so real.
We were all crying in that scene.
Lupita : It was, it was really cold and, and we shot that in South Africa over four days and it was the winter time in South Africa, so it was a little shy of thirty degrees. So we would get into our costumes, go into a hot tub, get wet and then go into this freezing cold water all day and every time they said, cut, we’d run to this hot tub. We’d just sit in and then we got all muddy because of the mud in the water and we’d just sit there and sing and talk and play until we had to go again.
Madina : I also had another scene. This scene where by he is to be knocked by a boda boda [motorcycle]. It was so bad for me because I had an accident with a car when I was little, so I saw a human being knocked down, so I knew it happens and how it feels to see someone in that much pain. So it was so bad for me and to make me remember the conditions that I was in when I was knocked down by a car, so that was my favorite one.
I too was hit by a car when I was young, two years old actually. Though I don’t remember, my family has spoken on it a few times (they care not to relive it) and that scene too is powerful in the movie to me.
Our time with the three of them was short. Lupita was on her was on her way to the Ellen DeGeneres show following our interview, so one last question was posed and Lupita fielded it. Do you prefer roles in stories that have never been told and what do you hope to bring to the forefront in playing those roles?
Lupita : Well, I love playing roles that that stretch me and help me to learn something new and deep about the human experience. It was not by design that I set out to play African women, but how happy I am to have had these opportunities because I think Africa all to often a blanket statement. There’s so specificity. It’s very general wash of ideas that people have of this continent where I’m from. I know, being from there, that it is many splendored and to be able to bring to the forefront particular and specific stories about African women is so exciting to me because I’m a child of global popular culture. I grew up watching Mexican, Brazilian, Australian, English, American TV and cinema and I think I was able to identify with all those people that I met and learn something new about those cultures. I’d never worn a winter coat, but I know when you’re in New York, you have a winter coat. So for an African story to be playing that same kind of role, a universal story as we find with Phiona Mutesi in this story of Queen Of Katwe, it is my pride and my joy. I am so happy to be able to play a part in, in making the African woman the global woman.
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for more #QueenOfKatweEvent posts, interviews, and red carpet experiences from our trip, check out the following link, http://jenisonajourney.com/tag/queen-of-katwe.
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Queen Of Katwe is in theaters everywhere September 30!
My trip that included the interview with Lupita Nyong’o, Madina Nalwanga, and Martin Kabanza was hosted by Disney but every personal moment documented is 100% my own.
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