This is Peele's second film as writer and director, and he set the tone with Get Out in terms of incorporating social commentary on race into the horror genre, which eventually won him an Oscar for best original screenplay.
For Nyong'o, playing the dual roles of Adelaide and Red, the character's evil twin counterpart, was challenging, but also a big reason to take on her first mainstream leading role."Adelaide had a background in dance, so for her I did ballet classes. To get that kind of ease in the body, there's nothing easy about it."
"I met people with the condition and worked with a vocal therapist to learn how I could emulate it myself and I built off that. It was so much fun."What was also interesting for Nyong'o to explore as she built the character was that Peele had described Red as a queen and a cockroach at the same time.
On how she handles her darker self, she said:"I meditate. And I do films like this that keep me out of jail." Nyong'o will reprise her role as Maz Kanata in Star Wars: Episode IX and release her children's book Sulwe in the fall, which tells the story of a five-year-old Kenyan girl who struggles with her complexion, just like she did growing up.