Image: COURTESY
Kenyan-born American actor Lupita Nyong'o has the internet going crazy after she shared a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes training that she underwent for her role as Nakia in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever film.
The 39-year-old took to her Instagram page to give her over 10 million fans a glimpse of the excruciating training she underwent to perfect her role as the "war dog" spy Nakia.
In the video where she is seen walking underwater with maybe 10 or 15 kg dumbbells, she highlighted how she improved her swimming skills by performing Navy Seal-like training sessions for the sequel.
On top of that, she also had to swim with weights as well as use one arm to perfect her skill.
Sharing the video she wrote, "How I trained to swim in Wakanda Forever... I felt like a crawfish.... however I was safely supervised.." .
The actress also added, "swimming down to Talokan (fictional underwater land in Wakanda was not as easy as it looked."
During her episode on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 39-year-old candidly revealed how she received a text from Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler where he asked her to rate her swimming skills from 1 to 10
Chuckling the actress responded, that she was below average.
“I was like four if I’m lucky. Because I would swim like a panicked puppy.”
Following her response, the actress was signed up to participate in Extreme Performance Training, which focuses on improving one’s capacity by training underwater with weights.
“It’s all about overriding your panic button,” she explained.
During the premier of the movie, last week in Nigeria Lupita opened up about her inspiration
Speaking about the film and playing the role of Nakia the award-winning actress said it was beyond moving as she highlighted she drew her inspiration from different parts of the motherland, Africa.
"This continent inspires this film, and so, the fact that we are bringing it here to celebrate it with the people who very much inspired it is monumental. And West Africa is specifically important, especially to African American history and culture."
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