Our first guest is an Academy Award-winning actress
you know from movies like 12 Years a Slave and Black
Panther.
Please welcome the wonderful Lupita Nyong'o.
[APPLAUSE]
Hello.
Hi, Lupita.
How are you?
Hi.
I'm well.
I'm very well.
I can't believe-- you look good.
You're in Kenya right now, right?
Yeah, I'm in Kenya.
What time is it there?
It's 1:15 AM.
[CROWD GROANS]
Thank you.
Thank you for staying up.
What time do you normally get in bed?
I aim for 10.
I usually make it there by 11:30, so you know,
I never thought I'd show up to Ellen in my pajamas.
Forgive me.
Well, I always knew you would.
[LAUGHTER]
So Portia and I have been to Kenya before, which I love.
I'm really crazy about Kenya, and we've gone to Tanzania.
We've gone to South Africa.
Trying to remember where else.
And Rwanda, of course.
You're in Kenya, but where have you been other than Kenya
there?
In my life, I've been to Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Mauritius.
Wow, so you have traveled a lot, and there's
elephants behind you.
Did you take that picture, or is it just a stock picture
that you have on your wall?
[LAUGHS] It came with the house.
All right, yeah.
All right, so you don't know those elephants?
[LAUGHTER]
I don't know them, but I love them all the same.
So when you're back in Kenya--
I saw a video.
I'm going to show the video.
Tell me, is this something that you do a lot at home?
(SINGING) Mighty Jesus who died for me.
My teacher, what will we do for the mighty Jesus who died.
Jesus said, listen to my teachings
and pay attention to what I say.
What is that a field of?
That's beautiful.
It's a tea plantation, and I went for a walk
there with my cousins.
It was my cousin's birthday, and so we took a walk
through the tea plantations, which I've actually never done.
And it reminded me of these old Kenyan music videos,
where people would just go to places like that
and shoot a whole music video.
So I was channeling that.
Wow.
Well, you look like you were getting high off the caffeine
from the tea, but it was beautiful.
And it just looks gorgeous there.
I mean, everything, it's beautiful.
And now you're riding a motorcycle.
Is that something you just-- because this video
looks like this is the first time
you've ever been on a motorcycle.
Well, yes, on my own.
Yes, it was definitely the first time.
Yeah.
And yeah, I came back home, and all of my cousins
were riding motorbikes.
And I was like, well, obviously, I have to get on, as well.
I was very inspired by them.
Yeah, all the ladies in my family seem to be riders,
and I didn't want to be left out.
Are you better now?
You were going very, very slow.
There's no point.
You could just walk if you're going to go that slow.
Have you gotten faster?
I'm afraid not, no.
Because I had a fall, and I had the fall because I
was not going too fast.
It was because I was actually going too slow,
so I had this kind of awkward, slow-motion fall.
And I hurt my wrist, and so [EXHALES]
I had to take a break.
Yeah.
Yeah, so you're going to hurt yourself if you go fast, too.
So maybe you just stay off the motorcycle.
Maybe there's no need to do that.
I need to work on the helmet bit first.
Yeah, I heard that you had a hard time getting the helmet on
because you were claustrophobic.
Yeah, I'm definitely claustrophobic,
and I just don't understand how you're
supposed to have all of that on your face
and still see where you're going.
Well, maybe you're putting it on wrong
because you should still see.
Look, there's an opening in front of you.
You're freaking out just with the--
and so I heard this in the meeting this morning.
You love scaring people as much as I do.
I do.
Who are you scaring?
I particularly love to scare one of my sisters.
Fiona is very easy to scare, and I love
to devise ways to scare her.
Yeah, what's the most elaborate thing you've done?
I mean, when someone's coming out of the bathroom,
I like to hide so I get them when they're coming out
of a bathroom.
But what's the elaborate thing you've done?
Well, we were in the Serengeti for the first time,
and we were staying at this beautiful lodge that
had outdoor showers.
And she mentioned that she's never had an outdoor shower.
We got there at night, and so I encouraged her to go and get
into the shower.
We both had outdoor showers, so I timed it
until I heard her water going and everything.
And it was outside, you know.
These baboons and elephants and all sorts of animals that
were probably around.
And then I crept to her side of the room,
and I just waited in the shadows until she turned around.
And I was just standing there like this.
[LAUGHTER]
I didn't even say anything, and she freaked out.
And I had such a good laugh.
There's nothing like the laugh from scaring somebody.
No, there's nothing like scaring somebody.
It is always fun.
It never lets you down, or them.
Hey, we have to take--
[INAUDIBLE]
What's that?
Better.
What'd you say?
Especially when they're naked.
Oh.
[LAUGHTER]
I have to remember that.
I have to start trying to get my guests naked first,
and then I will scare them.
I didn't even think of that, Lupita.
Mary, we need to get the guests' naked next time.
Then someone pops out of this table.
All right, let's do that during sweeps, OK?
Yeah.
We're back with Lupita Nyong'o.
That was a clip from her new series called Super Sema.
So you're an executive producer on it,
and how did this come about?
Was this your idea?
Did they bring you on?
Who did this come up?
They brought me on.
They sent me some of the episodes,
and I couldn't believe it.
I was beaming because this is exactly
the kind of thing I want to see in the world, the kind of thing
I want to be a part of creating.
And you know, Super Sema, she's this incredible super hero who
uses science, technology, engineering, and math to save
her little town of Dunia.
And she's a little African girl, imaginative, resourceful,
determined.
It's the kind of thing that I just
didn't have when I was younger, and so it just filled my heart
with so much joy that it exists and we
get to share it with the world.
Well, that's the kind of passion project everyone's looking for.
That's fantastic.
Now, you said when you were a kid, you didn't have that.
What were you like as a kid?
Were you a good kid?
Were you a troublemaker?
I was definitely a troublemaker.
I was definitely also highly imaginative.
I had an imaginary friend.
I think his name was Edwin or something,
and I would take him with me to class.
And I got detention because at one point,
Edwin was tickling me.
And of course, Edwin didn't exist, so I was like--
[GIGGLES] and totally distracted.
[LAUGHS] Wow.
So you also have a best-selling children's book
that's going to be a musical for Netflix.
So is that something you were going to sing in it,
or will somebody else sing?
I hope to god that I don't sing in it.
I don't think I'm going to sing in it, no.
No.
Leave it to more talented people in that department.
All right, we saw you in the tea leaves.
You were OK.
You were fine.
So everyone's excited about the next Black Panther,
and I'm sure it's going to be tough not working and not
having Chadwick Boseman there.
I mean, I've only met him a couple of times,
but what a great guy.
And what are you going to miss the most, I guess,
I'm wondering?
Wow, it's still so hard for me to come
to terms with his passing.
I mean, his leadership, he was the, just--
he led the movie with such compassion and just presence.
When Chadwick came on set, he was present,
and he brought his entire being to that movie.
And he was just so humble, as well, you know.
And that leadership will be missed, and he was my friend.
And so it's hard to think of him in the past tense still,
but I do know for certain that he would want us to do this.
And I feel that what Ryan Coogler has planned very much
honors him and his legacy, so I feel good about going back.
Yeah.
[APPLAUSE]
Well, I'm sure you're all going to feel that energy of him
on the set when you're there working,
and I'm sure that all of us will miss seeing him, as well.
But what a great guy he was.
It's so good seeing you.
Thank you for staying up.
Go to sleep now.
Thank you.
I appreciate you staying up, really.
You can catch Super Sema on YouTube now.
We'll be back.