♪ Wakanda Forever ♪
-Welcome back. -Thank you.
-You look gorgeous. You look gorgeous here, too.
Ooh-la-la. Come on.
-Thank you.
-Thanks for coming back to the show.
Congrats on "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
The reviews have been fantastic.
This is giant. -Yes, it is.
-Yes. -I feel it.
-You do, right? -I do.
-Me, too, I feel it, as well. Yeah.
I want to ask you some questions about filming the movie,
because there's a lot of it -- not -- no spoilers --
but there's a lot of it that is underwater.
-Yes. -Yeah.
-That's fair to say. -I can say that, right?
Yeah, yeah. -Mm-hmm.
-And a lot of that's real, right?
You're -- it's not just CGI.
-No, we actually worked underwater.
-I think that's -- I -- I mean, I can't act at all.
[ Laughter ] But acting underwater, I think,
would be a whole nother level of bad.
-It is a whole other level. -What do you do?
How do you do to practice or train?
-Well, before I did this film, Ryan sent me a text saying,
"On a scale of 1 to 10, how good can you swim?"
And I said, "Mm, 4, if I'm lucky."
'Cause I swim -- I would swim like a panicked puppy, you know?
[ Laughter ]
And so I knew I had to take some training.
So I took some swimming training, and --
but I also did this thing called XPT.
That is extreme performance training,
that was designed by Gabby Reece and Laird Hamilton.
-Laird Hamilton, sure. -Mm-hmm.
And it's learning how to improve your breath capacity
by performing tasks underwater.
So, I would carry these weights and walk on the floor of a pool.
-Yeah, and just keep practicing that.
You brought us video? -I did.
-Which is very nice. Here's Lupita training
underwater for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
Look at this.
-Wait. Ooh.
No, that would freak me out. [ Laughter ]
-It's otherworldly, huh?
-Yeah, because -- wow. But that's --
-But it's super serene down there.
-It's kind of a mental training, as well.
-Oh, yeah, it's all about
overriding your panic button, you know?
And 'cause you really have about two minutes worth of air
inside you, of oxygen inside you.
So when you panic, you still have two minutes to live.
So it's about trying to prolong that panic
so that you can do more underwater.
-Do you find yourself calmer in just real life, in oxygen?
-You know, yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Not underwater?
-No, it does transfer to real life.
-It does, right? -Yeah, because you have to just
find the calm inside you.
So, it is -- it's definitely helped me
in situations of high stress, to just zone in
and almost go back into the womb.
-Wow. -That's the feeling, right?
Like, being surrounded by water. -Yeah.
You were one of the first actresses ever
to get cast in "Black Panther."
Did -- Do -- Who did you talk to when you got it?
And who knew that you got it, and got the role and did --
Were you allowed to tell anyone, or it's very secretive?
It's Marvel. -Oh, no.
I -- Oh, well, so when I got the role,
I didn't know what the Black Panther was.
I was not familiar with the comic.
[ Laughter ] I'm from Kenya.
I'm allowed, right? [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, sure, you're allowed, yeah.
-This wasn't my area. -Yeah.
-And so -- -So, you just went
for a meeting with Marvel.
-Yeah, I went for a meeting with Marvel.
They were interested in me.
And then I found out that Ryan Coogler
was doing this movie called "Black Panther."
And so I hit up my friend Bill DeMeritt, who is, like,
a big comic buff.
I mean, he lives in comics. -Yeah.
-And so I called him up.
I'd gone to school with him, drama school.
And so, I called him up, like, "Yo, is this thing called
'The Black Panther' that I'm up for that --
And please just give me the -- the down low."
-Yeah, "Run me down. What is it?"
-Yeah, like, "What is it?"
And so, he gave me, like, full history.
I mean, he is such a buff.
I go to him every time I'm doing anything with Marvel.
-Did he freak out, or was he like, "Wait.
Ryan Coogler put --" -Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
He freaked all the way out.
He was so excited, and he was like, "Oh, my God.
I'm gonna be living vicariously through you."
[ Laughter ] -No way.
You know what I thought was funny, too, last night?
We had Winston on the show. -Yeah.
-Winston, who you actually went to drama school with.
-Yes, I did. -And isn't that fun
to see each other, and you go,
"Oh, we went to school together"?
Now you're in "Black Panther" together.
-Yeah. -Were you allowed to
tell each other, like, "Dude, did you get the job?
I'm in it," or -- -Well, no.
I had no idea. I didn't know he was in it for a hot minute.
We had actually watched "Avengers,"
the first "Avengers" together right after we graduated.
And I remember we were in Brooklyn watching it,
and we're like, "Wow. Wouldn't it be cool
to one day even just be an extra on that film?"
You know? [ Laughter ]
-Wow, it's -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Look at you -- look at you now. -Look at us now.
-I love it!
Of course, everyone's talking about Rihanna has a new song.
-Mm-hmm.
-The first song in six years that is on the soundtrack.
It's coming out. And I was like, "Oh, man.
It's gonna be fantastic." -Yeah.
-And here's a picture of you guys.
This went around the Internet. [ Cheers and applause ]
-That was the day I met her for the first time,
and she was sitting next to me. -Yeah.
-I just -- that was a lot.
That was a lot. [ Laughter ]
-This went all over the Internet because everyone's like,
"I want to see this movie." -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -Like, "What is this movie?"
Like, Rihanna is like -- what, is she a spy?
And what is going on? Like, what is the movie there?
And they're like -- and then it went all over the Internet.
I think Ava -- -Ava Duvernay was supposed
to direct it and -- -She got it.
-Issa Rae was gonna write it. -Yes.
-Yep, mm-hmm. -Okay.
So, it's still out there, and it's still avail--
if Rihanna wants to do it. -Hey, listen.
When she retires from dominating the world,
maybe she'll have time... [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -...to make a movie like that.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I can't imagine how difficult the --
the filming of the movie was, knowing about Chadwick Boseman
and losing Chadwick Boseman.
He was on our show a bunch of times, and we always loved him.
He was just such a kind and sweet, a big personality guy.
What do you remember about Chadwick when you --
when you worked with him? Any stories?
-You know, Chadwick had -- he was -- he was very quiet.
You know, like, he was --
He was also very funny. -Mm-hmm.
-And quite the -- he could be mischievous, as well.
-[ Laughs ]
-But he was also an eternal student.
I remember when we were promoting the first
"Black Panther," we were all on a plane to South Korea.
We were the only ones in first class, the whole cast,
and we were all in our pajamas, and we were tired.
We'd been going a mile a minute.
And so, most of us were asleep. And I woke up from a nap,
looked over, and Chadwick was sitting there
with a dense history book.
An African history book. -Wow.
-And I was like, "Yo, Chadwick, right now?"
[ Laughter ] "Like, we're --
-"We're exhausted." -"Yeah, we're exhausted.
Why are you -- what -- what is that?"
Then he went on to tell me what he was reading,
and he was just an eternal student.
He was so curious.
He always wanted to just sharpen his mind.
And in so doing, he just sharpened his understanding
of the human condition, you know?
-The -- The movie is very emotional.
But it's also -- I will say, it's also very fun.
It's a Marvel movie.
It's a superhero movie. It's got action.
It's got everything you want in a movie.
I mean, this one knocks it out of the park.
I can't wait for everyone to see it.
I want to show everyone a clip. Here's Lupita Nyong'o
in "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
Take a look.
-When you lived without saying a word, it hurts.
-How you re-create not being there with all of you...
it was not easy.
He was King and Black Panther to everyone.
But to me... [ Breathes deeply ]
...he was everything.
My T'Challa.
-Lupita Nyong'o, everybody.
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"
is in theaters and IMAX November 11th.
Thank you so much.
More "Tonight Show" when we come back, everybody.
Come on back. [ Cheers and applause ]