Lupita Nyong’o went all in to prepare for the extensive underwater scenes in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
On Saturday, the actor, who plays Nakia in the Marvel Studios film, shared a TikTok that allowed fans a glimpse into the physically demanding training she had to go through in order to prepare for filming.
The clip, which has more than 8.8 million views as of Sunday, made a reference to the fictional underwater nation introduced in the movie: “Swimming down to Talokan was not as easy as it looked!”
The clip, which has more than 8.8 million views as of Sunday, made a reference to the fictional underwater nation introduced in the movie: “Swimming down to Talokan was not as easy as it looked!”
In the TikTok, set to the song “Con La Brisa” from the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” soundtrack, Nyong’o is seen swimming underwater in a pool holding a dumbbell. Then, she crawls across the bottom of the pool with two heavier-looking dumbbells in each hand.
Later in the TikTok, she’s shown walking upright on the deepest part of the pool, holding dumbbells in both hands.
Nyong’o, 39, surfaces from the water at the end of the clip and says: “I feel like a crawfish.”
Nyong’o’s TikTok caption credits XPT Life, an extreme performance training company founded by Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece, and Mark Roberts, the company’s assistant performance director, for helping her train for the underwater scenes.
Roberts reposted the TikTok on his Instagram story and wrote that it was “a pleasure and a joy” to work with the “Black Panther” actor.
During an appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in early November, N’yongo said that acting underwater is a “whole other level” than anything she’d previously done. What made matters initially worse, she wasn’t exactly a confident swimmer to start.
“Before I did the film,” she said. “Ryan sent me a text saying ‘On a scale of one to ten, how good can you swim?'” Her response: “Four, if I’m lucky. Because I would swim like a panicked puppy.”
She said that she knew she’d have to go to extreme measures to prepare for the film. That’s why she sought out XPT Life, which she said helped improve her breath capacity through underwater weight training: “It’s all about overriding your panic button.”
Nyong’o continued, “When I was getting ready for Nakia I thought about her a lot. Because she knew what we did not, in the same way Nakia seems to be a lot wiser and more sage with death and grief than I was.”
Everything to Know About ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shows that Nakia left Africa years ago, and she didn’t even return for T’Challa’s funeral. She’d stepped away from life as a spy and settled down in Haiti. The film, which hit theaters on November 11, reveals that that much like how Simone was among the few to know Chadwick was battling colon cancer, Nakia was one of the only people aware that T’Challa was terminally ill.
Simone was among those thanked in the credits of Wakanda Forever, and director Ryan Coogler said he’d been in touch with her throughout the filmmaking process as they decided how to best honor the star.
“Chadwick had people who were in his life creatively, as well as family, and we were in close contact with those people, very close specifically with his wife, Simone, and his creative partner Logan Coles,” Coogler told THR in October.
“We were staying tapped in with them as much as we could, and it gave us the space to create, but obviously, we were seeking out their opinion all the time,” he continued. “We’re looking forward to sharing it with everybody.”
Simone attended the Los Angeles premiere of the sequel as well as a screening in Washington, D.C., that supported the Chadwick Boseman Foundation for the Arts.
