Trending badgeTrendingPosted 2 hours agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret DownLupita Nyong'o Recalled Repeatedly Being Offered More Slave Roles After Her Oscar Win, And It's Sparked A Heartbreaking Conversation"Lupita, we'd like you to play another movie where you're a slave, but this time you're on a slave ship."by Leyla MohammedBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink In 2014, Lupita Nyong'o's breakthrough performance in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave earned her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. (C)Fox Searchlight/Courtesy Everett Collection But sadly, Lupita struggled to bag diverse leading roles following her Oscar win - something that she has now opened up about in detail in conversation with Angélique Kidjo on CNN's Inside Africa. Jeffrey Mayer / Getty Images "My winning an Academy Award came at the very start of my career. It was for the very first film that I had done. So, it really did set the paces for everything I've done since," Lupita recalled. CNN / Via edition.cnn.com "But you know what's interesting is that, after I won that Academy Award, you'd think, 'Oh, I'm gonna get lead roles here and there.' [Instead, it was], 'Oh, Lupita, we'd like you to play another movie where you're a slave, but this time you're on a slave ship.' Those are the kind of offers I was getting in the months after winning my Academy Award," she shared. CNN / Via edition.cnn.com "It was a very tender time... Now there's an expectation for you and your career," she continued. "There were think pieces about: 'Is this the beginning and end of this dark-skinned, Black, African woman's career?' I had to deafen myself to all those pontificators because, at the end of the day, I'm not a theory; I'm an actual person." CNN / Via edition.cnn.com "I like to be a joyful warrior for changing the paradigms of what it means to be African. And if that means that I work one job less a year to ensure that I'm not perpetuating the stereotypes that are expected for people from my continent, then let me do that!" Lupita added. CNN / Via edition.cnn.com Lupita's candid comments have sparked a poignant conversation about the depth of "industry biases" that still persist. One person said, "Black actresses have fewer roles available to them, and those roles frequently rely on harmful stereotypes or archetypes," while another said, "I'm so tired of Black actors having to play slave roles. Especially when they're being brutalized. I'm convinced those movies are not for the black audience. We don't want to see the 100th slave movie." Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images Someone else echoed, "I mean, honestly, we have enough slave movies, we don't need any more. The atrocities of slavery are ingrained in books, TV, and movies...let's move past black ppl having to play slaves, it's really insulting atp.""Hearing this from someone as accomplished as Lupita really shows how deep the industry biases still run. Takes a lot of strength to turn down 'easy' roles and choose the ones that actually move the culture forward. Massive respect for how she protects her craft and her identity," another post read. Meanwhile, several fans went on to compare Lupita's career trajectory with that of other white actors, like Sydney Sweeney or Margot Robbie. Stephane Cardinale - Corbis / Getty Images "I always go back to how Margot Robbie and Lupita broke through the same year. In the next 5 years Lupita had one lead and 3 supporting roles where you couldn't see her face. Margot got 5 leads, including one franchise. Lupita had won the Oscar, but Margot hadn't even been nommed," someone wrote. (C)Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection "Comparing this to the amount of offers white actresses get after they win an Oscar..." one Reddit user said, while someone else on X wrote, "The roles offered to Black actresses after their Oscar's and their career trajectory compared to white actresses is always so noticeable.""The fact that in the year of the Lord 2025 this is still happening is disgusting and enraging," one more user added. Let us know what you think in the comments.